Sunny Southern and Western states dominated among the most popular U.S. property search destinations for foreign homebuyers in the third quarter, according to a report from Canada-based real estate technology and marketing company Point2.
For the report, the company tracked visits from non-U.S. consumers to listings pages on its public-facing property portal, Point2Homes, in the third quarter. Point2Homes had more than 768,000 U.S. listings last quarter, comprising 84 percent of all listings on the site. International traffic accounted for 35 percent of traffic to the site’s listings pages last quarter.
Source: Point2
Florida was by far the most popular state, capturing 33 percent of international traffic to all U.S. listings, followed by Arizona, Nevada, California and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
Top 10 states by share of international real estate traffic (Q3):
| State | % |
| Florida | 33% |
| Arizona | 15.1% |
| Nevada | 8.2% |
| California | 7.3% |
| Puerto Rico | 6.4% |
| Texas | 4.6% |
| Michigan | 3.7% |
| Hawaii | 2.9% |
| Georgia | 1.5% |
| New York | 1.3% |
Source: Point2
Canada was by far the biggest source of international traffic for these 10 areas, accounting for the highest share of foreign traffic in all and the majority of foreign traffic in seven: Florida, where Canadians made up 61 percent of foreign traffic; Arizona (nearly 92 percent); Nevada (70.6 percent); California (65.1 percent); Texas (53.4 percent); Michigan (nearly 74 percent); and Hawaii (nearly 76 percent). Point2 is based in Saskatoon, Canada.
The United Kingdom and Mexico were the second- and third-biggest sources of international traffic to these 10 areas. Georgia had the biggest share of traffic from the U.K. among the 10, accounting for 14.3 percent of that state’s overall international traffic. Puerto Rico saw the biggest share of traffic from Mexico, making up 11.4 percent of the territory’s overall foreign traffic.
Las Vegas was the most popular city for foreigners, accounting for 14.5 percent of overall international visits to U.S. cities. Orlando, Fla. was second (6.3 percent), followed by Kissimmee, Fla. (4.5 percent), and Detroit (4.2 percent).
Among the top 20 most popular cities, Florida accounted for eight; California, four; Arizona, three; Puerto Rico, two; and Michigan, Nevada and Texas, one each.
Las Vegas attracted nearly all of Nevada’s international traffic (91.7 percent) with Canada as the leading source (70.5 percent), followed distantly by the U.K. (5.3 percent), and France (2.2 percent).
Given the popularity of Florida among foreign homebuyers, international traffic was more evenly spread across the state’s cities in the third quarter. Orlando attracted the biggest share (11.4 percent), followed by Kissimmee (7.9 percent). In Orlando, Canada accounted for 35.9 percent of foreign traffic, followed by the U.K. (13.5 percent). In Kissimmee, the U.K. led with 38 percent of traffic, followed by Canada at 25.6 percent.
Canada and the U.K. also led among sources of international traffic in Detroit, the fourth most popular U.S. city.
Mesa was the most popular city in Arizona, attracting 20.3 percent of overall international traffic to the state. Canada led among sources (94.7 percent), followed by Ethiopia (1.2 percent).
In California, Indio was the most searched city, attracting 15 percent of the state’s international traffic. Canada accounted for 95.3 percent of the city’s foreign traffic, followed by Panama, South Africa, the U.K., and Venezuela (all 1.2 percent).
In Puerto Rico, Dorado was the most popular city with 15.5 percent of the territory’s third-quarter international traffic. Mexico dominated among site visitors (61.6 percent), followed by Colombia (6.8 percent), Canada (5.4 percent), and the U.K. (5.4 percent).
