Foriegn Buyers Are Back?

They probably are still here. Lots of foreigners have money. Less than before. NYC is still one of the greatest cities in the world. Reasonable compared to Tokyo, London, etc.

yeah, but now that the Euro has fallen significantly, it might be cheaper for foreigners to buy in Europe. Why buy a tiny condo in NYC when you can buy a lovely chateu in the south of France?

But the dollar is much stronger than a year ago, so NYC is NOT a bargain compared to London, Tokyo, etc. EVERYTHING in dollar terms is 50% higher to brits than a year ago!

uh..and they have recessions and real estate crashes (horrible in uk and spain, for ex) also now, so the "wealth effect" wll damper enthusiasm for jaunting off to nyc to buy a little bit of big apple

They forgot to mention Canadians from Canada.

you people are real idiots.

I have several clients who are looking at buying in NY. You say europaens arent buying here. So what, who needs europeans - I have a frenchman, an egyptian and an indian looking at buying condos, 3 br, and they all want to spend $5M or more.

Leave the business of real estate to us experts - you can ask other brokers like rachel and Ali you'll see - perhaps you need us brokers to educate you. So the euro is weaker, well the french franc is still strong and the indian rupee and egyptian dollar. And your right abot the canadians alanhart. They are flocking here like geese, incredible.

broker_ivan: you are kidding, right?

you have a non-european frenchman willing to give you french francs for a NY apt?

i will give you 20% more than him (in french francs), all cash, for the same apt, sight unseen!

everybody see polyboa's comment? there is plenty of demand out there!! I here another bidding war on the way! Ha, renters are fools.

oh the irony...

poor broker ivan, income must be plummeting. and will go down further. inventory keeps rising and the rate of increase also is rising. not a good sign. lots of sellers and yes many of them are the foreign investors who bought when the dollar was cheap. the strengthening dollar has only caused their asset to appreciate even more. but falling RE values are cutting into those fat profits. time to sell to lock them in. distant buyers always want to move properties quickly so expect more price depreciation. sorry ivan but one not need be an "expert" to understand basic economics. and wasn't it broker "expertise" that is partially responsible for the mess we find ourselves in?

ivan = troll

I love Ivan. I HOPE he is real, but think he is just messing with you all.

anon3 beat me to the punch on this one. No way is ivan real, because even a broker could not possibly be as uninformed as he is trying to make himself appear (and I say that while acknowledging that my capacity to believe that brokers are uninformed is substantial). Here is why I think that everyone who is attacking ivan has fallen for a spoof post on the type of silliness that clueless brokers actually post on SE:

"So the euro is weaker, well the french franc is still strong" - Umm, the French Franc exchange rate was fixed against the Euro effective 1/1/99 and the Euro replaced the Franc (and all of the other Eurozone national currencies) for accounting purposes as of that date. Euro notes and coins replaced the Franc in circulation in early 2002. So ended the French Franc as a medium of exchange for buying NY real estate.

..."and the indian rupee" - INR spot closed at 39.4/USD on 12/31/07, 48.8/USD on 12/31/08 and 50.6/USD yesterday (Fri 3/27), so is depreciated 19% against the dollar in 2008 and another 3.5% YTD in 2009, for a total of 22% in the last 15 months. Yeah, I can definitely see how that would get Indian buyers fired up to buy assets priced in dirt cheap US dollars.

"...and egyptian dollar" - The national currency of Egypt is the Egyptian Pound. Has been since 1834. The pound has held up vs. the USD, however. Down only about 2% since the end of 2007

And as to the Canadian dollar, it was down 18% vs. the USD in 2008 and has fallen another 2% in 2009, for a total of 19.6% since 12/31/07

Ivan is a funny guy, but he's busted.

broker_ivan
there is NO French Franc anymore
just to let you know
there is also no DeutschMark anymore
same is true for the Dutch Gulden
Italian Lira
and so on

L O L

a name can be a message

Ivan the Terrible L O L

anonman2002 and cfranch, you can deny all you want but I am extremely busy representing sellers and buyers from india, egypt and africa. You see, over the past few years fools like you sat on the sidelines while people like alpine222, petrizitz and juiceman bought apartments. They wont be selling there apartments soon and will at least break even in 30 years or more while you will still just be renting. Their kids will then have their apartments, they will always have a place to live while you still rent.

You can say things about me and other real estate brokers like you say about petrizizz: "oh, he doesnt really have a prius with a driver" "oh just because he owns a house in a bankrupt development in las Vegas theres no way he lives next to saline dion!"

You are all sour grapes. Its people like petrifizz who are the smart ones. DUH! I believe he lives near saline dion.

I hear the same things you say about that other broker Rachel - she lies about square footage. Maybe someday you can try to measure an apartment. See how easy it is then for you! Fools.

sidelinesitter and HT1 yeah thank you for the economics lesson, maybe I can teach you a few things too. Like how many Canadians want to move to NY. You can joke. Do you know how many Canadians there are? Well Ill tell you. A lot. Just ask agent Rachel she is probably working with a lot of Canadians too.

I saw agent Rachels picture too. She looks good and smart. I think she fixed her nose. Do you think so?

"They forgot to mention Canadians from Canada."

I really love this statement, it cracks me up everytime I read it.

ivan - staying in character. Nice. At least HT1 is still buying it.

HA, you see JUICEman? You get it, my freind!!! You are the smart one!

Tell these people your story about how you bought an apartment and love it! And you know, you WILL break even in 30 years I know for sure! Im like you, JUICEman, I grew up poor became a broker and very successful. you are a dentist. Maybe I can show your apartment to some canadians or french.

I am worth $1 BILLION*. Unlike all of you renters, I am filthy rich. I can buy and sell you with my pocket change. So Ivan, where can I buy with all my money. I don't need a mortgage, as I plan to show up to the closing with a suitcase stuffed with $100 bills.

*in Zimbabwae currency

Brokers are so busy these days they are putting up lots of bogus ads on craigslist. I spoke with one of the top brokers at Bond NY, the guy tells me there are barely any transaction. Now he is focusing on rentals, hence so many bait and switch rental ads on craigslist.

Manhattan real estate will come back one day, but not before idiots like ivan the terrible salesman get canned for not producing.

hofo -- Ivan is one of the top brokers in NYC, well on his way to joining agent Wendy as a true super agent. I've used him on three of my most recent RE transactions and I'm sure we'll actually make money when I use him on my next. He's very good at creating a win/win for himself and putting his interests before the buyers OR sellers.

You won't find many brokers with Ivan's creativity, charm, or deep pool of potential buyers. The other day while we sipping espresso at Balthazar I asked him what he thought of Stevejhx's posts on inventory in NYC hitting 11,000 and his eyes brightened -- "Even more apartments for me to sell and make $$$. I hope stevejhx is right and we hit 15k in inventory."

The man is quality. And he has a killer tan.

Ha Alpine292! That is very funny! I think you can get a good deal with all that money, little rich boy!

You better have some real dollars, alpine. I hope you charge your Mexican housemates dollars not pesos! I think your a pretty smart guy though, probably charge them dollars.

Alpine I was wondering though seriously how come so many Mexicans move to Alpine, New Jersey?

Ha Alpine292! That is very funny! I think you can get a good deal with all that money, little rich boy!

You better have some real dollars, alpine. I hope you charge your Mexican housemates dollars not pesos! I think your a pretty smart guy though, probably charge them dollars.

Alpine I was wondering though seriously how come so many Mexicans move to Alpine, New Jersey?

hofo - broker_ivan is really messing with you people portraying as a broker, but he is not. I enjoy reading his posts.

OH NO Broker-Ivan what can we say...................

Big trouble for moose and squirrel.

Broker Ivan you are better then Borat, keep them coming! i am european from Brazil and i pay in Cruzeiros

Notice none of them say you have to buy now. They say you have to own for the next "30 years" and cite phantom buyers 7000 miles away.

"This is funny. Note how broker is quoted as saying 40% of her buyers now are European! (but she is director of European sales for her brokerage). Yeah, and 99% of my sister the dentist's patients have teeth -- go figure."

This isn't good news, its math.

Could be just 1 foreigh buyer each month, but the share went up dramatically because number of domestic buyers fell to 1...

I heard that Somali pirates are investing their money in Manhattan RE. They are loaded!

Nah, Jersey Shore.

They need a place to park their boats.

You mean "their" boats.