Rising home prices reduce the number of foreign buyers in Florida from previous years.

International buyers still love Florida real estate, but their passion is fading. Foreign buyers spent $4.3 billion less on residential real estate in the Sunshine State last year, an 18 percent plunge blamed on a stronger dollar, rising home prices and economic uncertainties. Home and condominium sales to overseas […]

Home and condominium sales to overseas buyers actually increased by 7 percent to 47,000 properties in the 12-month period that ended in June, 3,000 more than the previous year, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors.

But the dollar volume dropped from $23.7 billion in 2015 to $19.4 billion last year, shaving the share of Florida’s residential sales to foreigners in the U.S. from 24 percent to 19 percent.

With shrinking buying power, foreigners are spending less here. The average price they paid for a Florida residence dropped from $539,000 in 2015 to $412,000 last year.

Fewer foreign buyers were coming to Southwest Florida, where home prices have soared in recent years.

“Florida remained the top destination of foreign buyers purchasing U.S. residential properties in 2016, accounting for 22 percent of all foreign buyers who purchased residential property in the United States,” said the study, authored by NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun and others. “However, slower economic growth in any countries, the appreciation of the dollar against a number of currencies, and strong price growth in multiple areas due to limited housing inventory combined to make conditions more difficult for foreign buyers purchasing in the United States and in Florida.”

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