American Real Estate: The Global Investor’s Best Investment
Why are investors around the world rushing to buy American real estate?
A History Of Support For Investors
The first reason is one that’s driven business here since American began. It’s because the United States of America is more open to investment, and because it encourages private enterprise like no other nation.
America provides not only a vast range of markets and resources, but allows for tax options and governmental supports that — by comparison — lift a huge monetary burden of regulation from the shoulders of investors domestic and foreign.
Fewer Taxes And Regulations
Listen to what one Australian investor had to say online: “I’m interested in investing in properties throughout the world. I live in Australia, but every time a property is purchased here, I am hit with stamp duty which is a very large government tax – I can often pay $50,000 just in tax for one property.”
$50,000 in taxes on just one property! In America now you could buy five entire properties for that much, with no stamp duty at all added. And not shabby, distressed or unsaleable properties, but American real estate that could easily double and triple in value as the American economy recovers and the American dollar grows stronger.
And the cost penalties are sometimes there even after you buy. A Swedish homeowner I spoke to on behalf of the Syd Chase Group informed me that Swedes not only have continuing adjustable mortgage rates that can skyrocket anytime, but that after purchasing a home, a form rent is still paid — to the government!
An Environment That Encourages Building Wealth
The simple fact is that many of the governments of the world are openly socialist or heavily regulated. We may respect individuals who hold those views, but when governments hold those views, they make it just plain hard to accumulate capital!
America by contrast wants people to achieve wealth, to own property, and to make a profit. And it makes it easier not just for its own citizens, but for foreign visitors and investors.
Yes, there are costs and legal fees here too. But as a rule they’re so much less than the equivalent elsewhere that many an investor who invests in American real estate profits immediately and instantly, purely because the time and money wasted dealing with punitive regulations are gone or minimized when you transact business in America.
Historical Lows In American Real Estate Prices
The second major reason foreign investors are investing in American real estate?
Timing.
The United States nation is in the middle of the biggest American real estate sale in its history. American real estate is now selling at bargain prices that were once considered to be unthinkable. The man or woman with money to invest in American real estate could easily see their investment rapidly double, and even double again.
That moment of opportunity will certainly pass. America is undertaking measures ranging from economic stimulus packages to rigorous restructuring of laws, banks, and companies.
The signs of recovery are already beginning to appear. And when recovery comes and American real estate prices rise? Those who invested will profit tremendously.
But the time to make that investment is now, when American real estate prices are as low as they will ever be likely to be.
And if you’re a European, an Australian, a New Zealander, the price of American real estate is even lower than it looks.
A Favorable Monetary Exchange Rate
Why? Because of an exchange rate that now greatly favors the Euro and a vast range of other global currencies.
The month I first wrote this article, April 2009, one Australian dollar is as strong as 0.7131 American dollars. So if an Australian with ten thousand Australian dollars spends seven thousand Australian dollars buying an American property — he or she has almost an extra three thousand Australian dollars worth of purchasing power!
He or she can use that to fix properties, to pay off debts, to buy more land, to do any number of profitable things.
And when that person brings those American dollars back home? Then his American dollars turn to almost a third more in Australian dollars!
As low as American home prices appear, in reality they’re even lower, because an Australian investor’s purchasing power is automatically increased when they buy houses in America. In America — not at home.
And that is changing.
The Coming European Economic Crisis
Many economic indicators clearly say that the European and global economies are even now undergoing signs of stagnation and recession. One magazine reported that where American companies are roughly $500 Million in debt, European companies are $800 million in debt. A free Syd Chase Group report, Investing In America, outlines several reasons why the European economy is faltering even now.
Concerns are being voiced from The Economist to Le Monde, and the message is the same. Investing in European properties means taking a fall. For how long, is anyone’s guess.
But when it comes to American real estate, prices may be rock-bottom, but all the indicators are pointing up.
American Real Estate: The Place To Invest
So — why are so many of foreign investors buying American real estate? Because if they buy real estate at home, they pay extremely high prices, add extremely high taxes, endure an extremely large number of regulations, and face a future where the value of what they buy will shortly go down. Maybe way down, and for a good long while.
But if they buy American real estate, they have a continent of variety to pick from, the prices are rock-bottom, they pay far less in taxes, and they have every reason in the world to expect their investment to rocket up. And in the not-too-distant future at that.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to see why global investors are buying American real estate.
Or why you should be buying American real estate too.
About the Author
Sydney Chase, Sr., is the president and chief operating officer of the Syd Chase Group, an investment advisement, counseling and mentoring firm that provides a complete turnkey solution for investors in American and global real estate. The Syd Chase Group (www.sydchase.com) has assembled a full team of legal, insurance, accounting, and financial professionals who can locate the ideal real estate investment for home buyers across the world.
Syd Chase is a world traveler, a former officer in the U.S. Infantry , a former undercover detective in the Washington D.C. area, as well as an educator, author and entrepreneur who has formed several successful businesses. He can be reached online via his web site at www.sydchase.com, by email at syd@sydchase.com, and by phone at his company number, 315-398-3322.
