Infographic – At a Glance: America
Florida is the first choice for overseas property investors, TheMoveChannel.com´s latest At a Glance report shows. The infographic, which depicts the activity on the portal over the past 12 months, confirms that Florida is the international property hotspot of choice, accounting for over half of all buyer enquiries.
The Sunshine State lives up to its name on the infographic, glowing brightly enough to attract 57.91 per cent of buyers between August 2011 and July 2012. The closest any other state comes to matching Florida´s red hot appeal is Michigan, which received 13.56 per cent of enquiries. Both of them are ahead of New York, which took 11.88 per cent.
Together, the colourful trio account for a staggering 83 per cent of buyer demand, with the other 17 per cent divided between 47 states, leaving iconic places such as California to take just 1.21 per cent of enquiries. Six states, including Nebraska, Iowa, Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, received no enquiries at all.
Buyers´ search behaviour on TheMoveChannel.com was equally dominated by Florida. Orlando´s mix of theme parks and tourism saw one in four investors searching specifically for property in the homeland of Disney, while others targeted nearby rental zones of Kissimmee and Miami. Indeed, Florida´s appeal is so strong that the state accounted for eight out of the top 10 most popular locations, eclipsing even high profile property markets such as Manhattan (19th most popular by searches) and Las Vegas (20th).
Buyers interested in Michigan and Georgia turned straight to Detroit and Atlanta, with no other cities in either state appearing within the top 90 most searched-for locations.
The infographic also analyses search activity on Google, painting a strikingly similar picture. Buyers searched extensively for "US property" and "American estate agents" over the past 12 months, but far fewer searched for "houses for sale in USA" or "property in USA". Compared to previous infographics, where countrywide terms tend to appear in thousands of searches, national keywords for America are far less popular. Indeed, "villas for sale in USA", "condos for sale in USA" and "real estate in USA" were not searched for at all n the past year. "Florida property", "condos for sale in Florida" and "villas for sale in Florida", on the other hand, appeared hundreds of times each.
TheMoveChannel.com Editor Ivan Radford comments: "It´s easy to talk about US real estate as one great lump, but you really get a sense of the size and variety of America´s property markets from TheMoveChannel.com´s infographic. The range of recovering economies and sectors is so vast that you can see nationwide searches for property on Google are way less common than other countries in the At a Glance series. Instead, buyers are searching for property by state and city – and once you´re down to that level, Florida´s authority is clearer than ever.
"The Sunshine State is traditionally recognised as the main hotspot for international investors, but you can tell just by glancing at the large patches of red and yellow how true that is. Orlando has a strong lifestyle appeal for buyers, but the number of searches for homes in the tourist corridor of Kissimmee and Davenport emphasises the buy-to-let interest in the area. It´s telling that the only locations to rival Florida are Detroit and Atlanta, both strong rental markets; these colours may well change once the markets have fully recovered.
"Looking at the bigger picture, this month´s At a Glance illustrates that not only is Florida the most popular state in the US for property, but it´s also the most dominant region on any of TheMoveChannel.com´s infographics so far. "
Click here to see the full infographic.
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1999, TheMoveChannel.com is the leading independent website for international property, with than 400,000 listings in over 100 countries around the world, marketed on behalf of agents, developers and private owners.
The website address is http://www.themovechannel.com and the office address is 24 Jack´s Place, Corbet Place, Spitalfields, London, E1 6NN.
Contact Dan Johnson on 0207 952 7650 for further information.