September 23, 2019 — Austin
International homebuyer activity added $7.8 billion to the Texas economy from April 2018 to March 2019, according to the Texas International Homebuyers Report released today by Texas REALTORS®.
Texas ranked third in the nation for homes sold to international buyers, behind Florida and California. Texas accounted for 10% of all homes purchased by international homebuyers in the United States, with 18,310 home sales out of 183,100 nationwide. The U.S. saw a 31% decrease in the number of foreign buyer purchases compared to the last reporting period.
Texas was particularly popular with buyers from Mexico and India. Of all homebuyers from Mexico, 28% purchased a home in Texas. The next closest state, California, had 10% of the total homebuyers from Mexico. Among buyers from India, 13% chose Texas—just behind first-place Florida, with 14%.
On the commercial side of real estate, Texas is the third-most popular destination for buyers who work with REALTORS®, according to the 2019 Commercial Real Estate International Business Trends report from the National Association of REALTORS®. Dallas was the fifth-most popular U.S. market for commercial real estate purchased by international buyers with a dollar volume of $2.9 billion, and Houston was ninth at $2.2 billion.
“Texas is seen as a solid state for investments due to our strong economy, business environment and large metropolitan areas,” said Tray Bates, chairman of Texas REALTORS®. “Investors are interested in residential and commercial real estate in Texas where they can deploy their resources to make an attractive return. Specifically, we’re seeing international investors look to Texas for large-scale investments in subdivisions and master planned communities.”
Early in 2019, delegates from Texas REALTORS® traveled to the leading international real estate development conference, Le marché international des professionnels de l’immobilier (MIPIM), in Cannes, France to meet with international real estate investors and showcase Texas’ attractive investment climate.
“One of the key learnings we brought home from MIPIM was the increasingly diversified interest in both residential and commercial real estate in Texas,” said Hanne Sagalowsky, a REALTOR® from Dallas and the National Association of REALTORS® Coordinator to Western Europe, Israel and Turkey. “With this increased foreign interest, we want international homebuyers eyeing Texas to know that REALTORS® can help them navigate common issues such as taxes and currency conversion to successfully complete their real estate transaction.”
Bates concluded, “The world continues to see Texas as a strong environment for international real estate investment opportunities. Whether international buyers are seeking to purchase large-scale properties or single-family homes, they can count on Texas REALTORS® to help them find the right home or property.”