J miller: FX rates applied to Manhattan

OMG: whenever the shills start bragging about "foreign buyers to the rescue," it's certainly the death knell of the market.

The problem with this entire analysis is that you're buying in one currency, but you earn in another. Therefore, to hedge the currency risk you would have to engage in a series of expensive currency swaps to hedge each month's foreign currency payments. Then there's the interest-rate risk that goes along with it, the special statutory requirements for nonresident foreigners to borrow money and own property in the US, and the difficulty of enforcing legal rights when you live thousands of miles away.

Only a fool would believe that foreigners are going to save us. Ask the Irish carpenter.

From the naked eye, I don't really see a huge difference in the spreads over the past few years. Is there a conclusion?

Some amount of global diversity is a good thing for the well off.

"From the naked eye, I don't really see a huge difference in the spreads over the past few years. Is there a conclusion?"

Are you a RUTARD? Double-click on the picture and re-read that chart. Something that cost the same in Euros ten years ago as it did in dollars has doubled in Euros but has nearly tripled in dollars. Now think real long and hard about how that might look to say a German person looking to buy real estate versus an American.

Now look at the real and pound buyers - for all periods, it was cheaper for them to buy in New York all else equal than Rio or London, though the relative change over time was not as favorable as it was for the Euro buyers.

Jason -- He did say "over the past few years". I think its clear to everyone what the chart shows over 10 years but I'm not sure how anyone would extrapolate that to an investment today given the unusual currency situation across the world today.