New Mumbai
Yup. This is what US needs. Investors and money flowing IN.
"US Realty Turns Hot Property: Indians snapping up big housing deals"
ht tp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/nri-real-estate/us-realty-turns-hot-property-indians-snapping-up-big-housing-deals/articleshow/8518260.cms
NEW DELHI: India-born American realtor Jaswant Lalwani hasn't been this busy since the housing crisis in the US in 2008. "I have closed 10 deals with Indian buyers in the last three months. And I am working on another 30," he says. The Manhattan-based realtor deals with all kinds of buyers, but of late, he has got more business from Indian clients. ( Latest news on NRIs )
Rohit Prakash, based in Austin, Texas , has for long been doing brisk business helping Americans and foreigners buy and sell property in the capital of one of America's biggest states.
Recently, he set up American Full House to cater to Indians looking to buy homes in locations that have seen a huge price drop. An Indian buyer who contacted him sometime ago is close to doing two deals in a suburb of Los Angeles at $82,000 and $85,000 each for a three-bedroom condominium. At the peak of the housing boom, these properties were selling at close to $250,000.
Flush with cash and keen to diversify their portfolio, Indians are busy snapping up property in the US. Buyers include rich families whose children are either working or studying there, and rich individuals in India looking for good returns. "These individuals have a minimum net worth of $1 million and are looking for properties in the $1-10 million price range," says Lalwani of Corcoran Real Estate.
Indian buyers are mostly exploring cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other parts of southern California and Phoenix, and Miami, where prices are still 60% lower than the peak.
According to the US National Association of Realtors , Indians contributed 7% of total international home sales of $82 billion in the US during the year ended March 2011, only behind the Canadians (23%) and the Chinese (9%). The year saw the highest home sales in America after the meltdown, and the largest purchase in value terms by the Indian community in three years.
"The US is a mature market and very transparent. Unlike in India, it is easier to manage property there," explains Santhosh Kumar, chief executive officer of operations at global property firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which has closed about 5-6 such transactions in the last 12 months.
The subprime crisis in the US in late 2008 was followed by a sharp drop in home prices. Even after two-and-a-half years, the country's real estate market has not recovered. Property prices have been declining for 57 consecutive months now.