Dear Steve II

Totally in agreement today. And might I add that one element of this good fortune may be coming from both abroad and south of the border: final day of Luxury Portfolio, we learned (among other things) how the influx of foreign buyers has helped prop the US Real Estate market. Folks, they are buying up our properties in droves — a 25% increase in foreign buyers in sagging markets like NYC and Miami. LP’s Executive VP Paul Boomsma calls it a two-for-one sale given the dollar’s devaluation. We heard from top Miami Realtor extraordinaire Audrey Ross with Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell that if 2005 was the shining year of Florida Real estate sales, 2007 sales for single fam homes is down 34% from that pinnacle, and condo sales are down 22%. OMIG: 20,000 fresh new condos are yet to be delivered to the market. However, she is setting her sites (and brushing up foreign language skills) on the flush buyers coming from the UK (Ireland and Scotland, the Highlanders apparently love beaches) and Russia. Not one buyer, she said, has hailed from California — it’s Europe coming in and sweeping up the bargains.
In our case, it’s Mexico and South America and it won’t be long before the Russians will also be coming to Texas.