FOREIGNERS WANT TO TAKE OVER ELM STREET AND MEADOWBROOK TERRACE: HINT-THEY ARE NOT MEXICANS.

Okay, so this headline is nativist bigot bait. But it often works. So what will Main Street America think about this?

One of the results of the weak dollar is that exports rise when the dollar goes down. When the dollar falls in value, people and countries that hold more valuable currencies benefit. This is because their money buys them more from America. Or in America.

LONDON CALLING AMERICAN REAL ESTATE BROKERS.

An article on Yahoo.com discusses the prospect for foreign investors buying up residential real estate and perhaps propping up the falling American housing market.

The article is entitled “Foreign Cash Could Boost Housing Market”.


The weakening dollar has caused many problems for consumers, but it may also be providing the fuel for one unintended -- and very welcome -- benefit: a rally in the struggling housing market driven by foreign investors…

For an individual or developer trying to sell a home, interested buyers are just as likely to already have a place in London or Paris as they are to be first-timers new to the market.

"European investment is likely to pick up," said Mark Vitner, chief economist for Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. "Now is the time to come over and take advantage."

The theory goes that foreign investors step in and replace first-time home buyers who have been squeezed out of the housing market during the recent downturn. These new investors in turn allow current homeowners to sell and trade up to larger homes.

LOVE THAT EURO.

As the housing market has plummeted, the dollar has also sunk to record lows compared to other currencies, such as the euro, meaning more spendable cash in the U.S.

"The dollar is on sale," said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Today, a foreign buyer would need only 34,100 euros to make a $50,000 down payment on a house. At the beginning of the year, the same buyer would have needed 37,920 euros to make the same down payment.

SEND YOUR RENT CHECK TO PARIS AND YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO THE “ALL VOLUNTEER”MILITARY.

GOOD DEALS NOW IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL!