Foreign real estate investors say they expect to see a recovery in the US real estate market by the end of the second quarter in 2010, the survey says. AFIRE chief executive James Fetgatter tells GlobeSt.com that expectation dovetails with investors' outlook for the remainder of '09.

"If they assume that the recovery will begin in the second quarter of next year, then logically they would start to start pooling their money this year," especially if they want to get a jump on some attractive prices, Fetgatter says. "There is capital sitting on the sidelines--apparently quite a bit." How much of that foreign capital will actually be spent in the US would be "speculation" at this point, though.

Certainly, a high-profile example of foreign capital coming back into US real estate was the acquisition earlier this month of AIG headquarters at 70 Pine St. and 72 Wall St. in Lower Manhattan by Korea-based Kumho Investment Bank. "Koreans have been looking around for the past year or so," says Fetgatter. "As far as I know, this is the biggest acquisition that they've made." He adds that a change in Korean law last year has made it easier for Koreans to take capital out of the country.