Foreign Buyers Buy Home Sales

Clients from abroad keep Realtors afloat
Houston Business Journal - by Allison Wollam Reporter

Foreign buyers are giving a global lift to the Houston housing market.

While overall home sales have cooled off for 11 consecutive months, purchases by foreign buyers have remained hot.

Realtors who specialize in dealing with clients from countries such as Mexico, China and the United Kingdom cite several attractions for foreign home buyers. A weak U.S. dollar,low area home prices and a thriving oil industry are a few reasons behind the residential shopping spree.

Connected to Mexico

Realtor Mariana Saldana has been working weekends and holidays to keep up with demand from prospects in Mexico scouting out homes in the Houston area.

"I haven't even gotten to take a summer vacation yet,we are so busy," says Saldana,a Realtor with Uptown Real Estate Group Inc.

Saldana estimates that 75 percent of her business involves customers from Mexico. She's currently helping a 20-member family move to Houston before the sale of their high-profile business in Mexico is announced.

The large family has a 30,000-square-foot home in Mexico,and finding a comparable home in the Houston area has been difficult. Saldana has been looking at land in River Oaks and Tanglewood to find a suitable site for a custom-built home.

"Buyers from Mexico like to live close to each other,so I'm constantly looking at homes for complete families,including the parents, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, cousins, aunts and uncles," says Saldana.

Other Mexican clients have listed with her to purchase two $3 million homes in the Carlton Woods community in The Woodlands.

The median price of homes she sells to Mexican buyers is between $500,000 and $900,000.

Houston offers abundant travel connections with 20 direct flights a day to Mexico City and about 10 more to other cities in Mexico. Saldana says Houston is viewed as an international city providing quality restaurants and shopping destinations.

Security is also a consideration in areas of choice such as the Galleria, Tanglewood and West University, as well as enclosed neighborhoods.

Says Saldana: "A lot of Mexican buyers are moving here because of all the crime that is taking place in Mexico right now, so they like to feel safe and live in gated and enclosed communities or high-rises."
Asian attraction

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