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- Shaping Local Affordable Housing Policies
- Sold a Home to a Registered Nurse Lately?
- DO's and DON'Ts of Teaching Diversity
- Listing Properties in Latin America
- European Markets Strengthening According to New Report
- NEW! Broker Sales Meeting Toolkit: Focus on International
- Preparing to Serve Clients Investing Abroad
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Housing is key in attracting foreign investment into local communities because livability and competitiveness go hand in hand. Communities that attract and retain investment and labor are more likely to flourish. Housing must be available for the full range of workers--low to high-income earners. Location is another factor. Is housing available relative to nearby jobs' wage levels? REALTORS® can be a powerful voice on affordable housing issues. In 2004 the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University published "Opportunity and Progress, A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy." Authors Henry Cisneros, Jack Kemp, Nicolas Retsinas and Kent Colton offer very readable information on the importance of housing to the economy, successes of bipartisan debate, government's role in housing, and today's market realities. They make 12 recommendations to Congress relative to setting aside partisan sentiments and taking up the issue of housing. These recommendations can be useful to discussing local positions and honing the association's voice on local matters. Request this publication from NAR's Information Central.
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If your market benefits from industries that rely on professional labor from abroad, you may have noticed a decrease in new in-bound homebuyers. The Immigration Service's inability to approve sufficient immigrant visa petitions over the past five years has led to major backlogs for "Preference Employment-Based" workers from countries supplying the greatest numbers: India, China and the Philippines. As a result, the flow of international nurses from these countries has been at a standstill since January. On April 19th a Senate Supplemental Appropriations Bill passed which included provisions to ease the annual cap on temporary/seasonal workers, and to recapture lost immigrant visa numbers (50% set-aside for RNs). If the bill becomes law, the supply of essential workers will begin to flow again this summer. However, the Dept. of State warns that visas for the higher "Advanced Degree" and "Extraordinary Ability; Outstanding Researchers; Multinational Executives" worker categories are becoming backlogged for natives of China and India. Source: Elliot & Mayock LLP Historically, many of these "temporary" workers obtain green cards or citizenship and buy homes.
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Diversity continues to be an important industry topic. Government and industry data indicate that two out of every three new households are being formed by foreign-born or minority persons. Foreign-born homeowners already account for $1.2 trillion in housing wealth. There are vast resources for diversity training for REALTORS®, including the At Home with Diversity certification and CIPS "International Real Estate in the Local Market" program (formerly "Essentials of International Real Estate"). Less structured resources include an online Diversity Toolkit. Brokers facilitating their own diversity training within the firm should be aware there recommended ways to provide instruction and prompt discussion about diversity. Download a short list of Do's and Don'ts when teaching about cultural differences.
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At this time, only Panama, Argentina, Brazil and the Bahamas in the Latin American markets have real estate license laws. This means that elsewhere in the region, U.S. practitioners may transact real estate in any country since the profession is not regulated. That said, U.S. REALTORS® are encouraged to work in tandem with a local professional, especially one who is a member of an NAR-affiliated organization who has local knowledge, contacts, and information needed to transact real estate. A list of such organizations is available at Realtor.org. NAR members can also now post ads for distinctive properties located outside the U.S. at WorldProperties.com. In the U.S., only NAR members can do so, as a benefit of NAR's affiliation with the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA). Soon a number of new Latin countries will be added to the property listing service, expanding NAR members' opportunities to market their foreign listings worldwide.
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Housing markets across Europe have strengthened over the past year, with all the major market indicators; house prices, transactions, mortgages and new construction, all showing strong growth, according to RICS' European Housing Review 2005 published in early March. France, Spain and Ireland all maintained double-digit house price inflation rates. Even Germany's long-term stagnant market appears to be picking up as owner-occupiers increase their mortgage demands. While UK home prices stopped growing and mortgage demand fell significantly, year-end prices were still markedly higher than in 2003 as a result of the strong increase in early 2004. Out of the 17 European markets analyzed in the report, only Austria and Hungary had a relatively poor housing market year in 2004. Read a summary or download the full (155 pg.) RICS report.
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Brokers looking to include short, interactive training into their regular sales meetings can download, for free, a series of training "toolkits" on topics related to doing global business in the local market. Topics include currency conversion & fluctuation, working with Asian and Hispanic clients, metric calculations, language, cross-border referrals and more. All modules can be facilitated by broker--no special training skills required, and most can be customized for varying lengths of time. Learn more or download modules.
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Baby boomers are leading the way in the trend of buying property abroad for investment, vacation and retirement home use. REALTORS® interested in serving this growing market can bone up on the fundamentals of global property investing with International Living's "How to be A Global Real Estate Investor: Your 101 to Building a Profitable International Portfolio." Learn more or order this 400-page publication/course, which sells for $349. International Living also makes available a limited number of free e-Letters and Reports, delivered electronically. View the current free offerings at InternationalLiving.com.
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Report compiled by NAR International Operations, narglobe@realtors.org. |
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