Survey: Overseas Buyers Will Be Back in the USA

WASHINGTON, DC-The confidence level of overseas investors has gotten a boost in the past six months, according to the first-ever mid-year survey from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. More than two-thirds of respondents to the survey, conducted among the association’s nearly 200 members and released on Wednesday, say they plan to invest some debt or equity in US real estate before 2009 is over, although about 75% have not yet done so this year.

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.