Why do many Americans buy houses in France?

American real estate agents are very upset: after American housing prices soared to a record high, many Americans who could not afford to buy houses no longer bought houses in China, but flocked to Europe.

According to KnightFrank's latest report, in the first five months of 2022, American buyers' search for French real estate increased by 37% compared with the same period of last year, among which Paris, Provence, French Riviera and Southwest France were the most popular areas.

Outside France, more and more Americans are looking to Mallorca in Spain and Sardinia in Italy, hoping to settle there.

According to media reports, Jack jack harris, a real estate expert at Knight Frank, said that whether in France or Italy, the housing demand of Americans has reached the highest level in at least three years.

Portugal and Greece are also the most popular destinations for Americans. New york's Sotheby's International Real Estate Company said earlier that from April to June this year, the number of Americans who asked to move to Greece increased by 40% compared with the same period last year.

House prices are too cheap in some parts of Europe.

The soaring housing prices in the United States, while the housing prices in some parts of Europe are surprisingly cheap, is one of the major reasons why Americans rob houses in Europe.

StephanieSynclair, an Atlanta native, realized her dream of buying a house in Italy in April this year. She bought a 365,438+000-square-foot house in Musomelli, Sicily, plus a smaller house and an 800-square-foot storefront. This * * * only cost 60,000 euros!

"If the American market was not so crazy, I would never consider buying a house in Italy," said the entrepreneur. She plans to telecommute, imagine the "good life" of wine and food, and the local literature club and art space she plans to open in her own shop, which "reminds people of the artistic scene of Paris in the1920s".

According to data from Zillow and Idealista, as of June 30th, the average house price in Atlanta reached $404,575, up by 19% year-on-year, while the average house price in Palermo, Sicily was only 86,560 euros.

In addition to the price difference, the sharp appreciation of the US dollar against the euro is another major reason. Knight Frank's latest report shows that the depreciation of the euro alone means that the cost for Americans to buy real estate in Europe is cheaper than a year ago 16%.

In addition, the rising cost of living in the United States, domestic political division and the return of tourism after two years of border closure have pushed more and more Americans to emigrate to Europe.

The local real estate market is collapsing.

The once prosperous American real estate market is accelerating its cooling.

According to the data released on Tuesday, the total number of new housing starts in the United States in July was 654.38+0.446 million, the lowest since February, 2026.5438+0, and the annualized month-on-month decrease of new housing starts was 9.6%, which exceeded expectations. At the same time, due to the rising mortgage interest rate, buyers are constantly withdrawing from the market, and the number of cancelled transactions has also increased.

According to the data of online real estate platform Redfin, about 63,000 purchase agreements were cancelled in July, accounting for 16% of the number of contracted properties in that month. Although in normal times, transactions will also fail for a series of reasons, with the slowdown in sales and rising borrowing costs, the proportion of cancelled transactions has been rising.

The outlook for the US real estate market also continues to deteriorate. According to a report released on Monday, the confidence index of American builders fell for the eighth consecutive month in August, the longest losing streak since 2007.

HomeDepot, the world's largest furniture and building materials retailer, performed better than expected last quarter, but the company said that customer transactions continued to decline.

Risk warning and exemption clauses

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