Latest news with #HousingMarket
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Surprising state where international buyers are scooping up property despite a looming crash
A handful of cities in Texas are grabbing the attention of international buyers, who are coming mainly from India, China, and Mexico to find low prices amid a possible housing crash. Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all made the list of destinations where homebuyers from around the world are purchasing investment properties, second homes for their kids, or a home they will retire in. Houston was the number 5 most searched US city by non-US consumers throughout the month of April, according to a new report from International demand also grew noticeably in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. None of the metros appeared in the top rankings for international buyers last year. 'The growing appeal of Texas markets to international buyers signals a noteworthy regional shift in investment focus,' said Danielle Hale, Realtor's chief economist. International buyers see Texas as a place for a long-term investment due to its lower cost of living and lack of state income tax. Many high-profile businesses have also relocated to the state, which has led to economic growth, job creation, infrastructure development and housing demand. Texas' cultural diversity and easy international travel connections also help its global appeal. For instance, San Antonio landed in the top destinations for Mexican homebuyers due to its proximity to the US-Mexico border. 'Mexican buyers likely tend to favor US border cities because of their proximity to home, strong cultural and language connections, established family and business networks, and easier access to education, healthcare and cross-border travel —making these areas both practical and familiar for living and investment,' said Hale. Texas realtor Cesar Amezcua explained the appeal of the Lone Star State — in particular San Antonio. 'We are just two hours from Mexico's border. We're literally 156 miles from the closest border town so we have always had a big influx of people from foreign nations, especially from Mexico,' he told the Daily Mail. Amezcua says a mix of buyers are using the purchases as investments to rent out, for their college age kids to live in, of for themselves as a main home. 'Some use it while they stay in the US for a couple weeks, other people use it for their children who want to go to college,' he said. 'They often work for big corporations in the technology sector, and they're always looking for the best schools.' International buyers have also been looking at buying in Houston, which is reinventing itself as a booming tech hotspot. Apple and Nvidia are leading the push with new AI factories in the city, which is set to create jobs, develop real estate and solidify Houston's future as America's next tech city. Amezcua added that the diverse culture in many Texas cities is often what draws international buyers too. 'There's plenty of nightlife depending on what it is that you're looking for,' Amezcua added. 'There are upscale restaurants and bars and cocktail places. 'We really are spoiled here in San Antonio. There's a little bit of everything because we're such a such a diverse town. For food, there's Peruvian, Colombian, Indian, Mexican, Tex-Mex, American Continental — you name it, we have it.' Amezcua says a buyer could likely get a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car garage for anywhere between $250,000 and $300,000 in the city. 'For that you're going to end up in a nice neighborhood with nice amenities like water parks and pools,' he said. Meanwhile, Texas has the most cities which have seen falling house prices over the last year. From April 2024 to April 2025, San Antonio saw prices drop 1.8 percent. Austin has seen a 1.2 percent fall, Dallas is down 0.8 percent and Fort Worth has dropped 0.2 percent. Texas became a boom state during the pandemic due to its warm weather, low tax rates and affordable housing compared to major coastal cities. For Americans, places like Dallas and Austin were once seen as affordable alternatives to high-cost cities like San Francisco and New York. But prices are now on the way down — in part due to the increasing frequency and intensity of climate disasters such as hurricanes. This has led to skyrocketing insurance premiums and rising HOA costs across many major cities.
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Art Laffer is right, stamp duty is a bad idea. But he's wrong about the answer
Art Laffer of 'Laffer Curve' fame has put Stamp Duty back on the agenda, arguing that the UK would be better off replacing stamp duty with wealth taxes on property akin to those used in the US. Economists tend to dislike Stamp Duty. It creates many distortions. It increases the cash required to buy a property, because a home-buyer needs not only enough cash for the deposit but also for the stamp duty. Because it is incurred on each purchase, it makes it very expensive to move house multiple times even if moving would be helpful to career progression (e.g. because one job was in London then one in Liverpool then one in Birmingham). This reduces liquidity in the housing market and reduces locational efficiency and the efficiency of job-matching. Historically, stamp duty has also created weird discontinuities in house prices with concentrations in prices at just below the thresholds. On the other hand, if there's one kind of tax political philosophers hate more than any other it is wealth taxes. The three classical foundations of society are regarded as being family, contract and property. Imposing special taxes on any of these – e.g. specific taxes for getting married or for establishing a contract or for owning things – are seen as undermining the entire rationale for centralised government. The point of a state is to protect property, not to confiscate it. States facilitate and enhance the value of trading – e.g. buying things or working for money – so it is legitimate for the state to claim a share of the added value from such trade, in forms such as income tax or VAT. But wealth that merely exists being eroded by the state is seen as unjust in principle. Is the answer here that there's a good reason to hate every tax and the only real question is which taxes create the most problems and who will holler loudest, or perhaps holler louder if other potential sources are not taxed too – as the French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert famously put it: 'The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing'? So perhaps we ought to have both stamp duty and wealth taxes? Or is there some way we could achieve our objectives in this area without either of them? I think there is. The answer, in my opinion, is to resurrect the concept of 'socage'. The idea here is that we should see the true ownership of land as something that only a sovereign can ultimately possess. Ordinary private citizens can only ever own the right to possess and use the sovereign's land in certain ways. There are still elements of that in our legal system today. But in the mediaeval period that concept was applied via an elaborate system whereby every parcel of land was associated with an obligation to those higher up in the feudal hierarchy that had a superior claim to that land. Such obligations might be military service, portions of harvest, and so on. One form of obligation was called 'socage' and in that case there was simply a monetary payment made at specified intervals to feudal overlords. Eventually the other forms of obligation were converted into socage. And later still socage was converted into modern leasehold and freehold. But we could bring socage back. That would mean that every parcel of land was associated with a charge to be paid to the sovereign for its use. Note that this is not a wealth tax or a tax on private property (where by 'property' I meant things like watches, coats or paintings). The very essence of the concept is that private citizens do not own land. The land itself is not their property; it is the sovereign's. Thus, unlike Laffer's proposed wealth taxes on property, a socage system would not establish a principle of wealth taxation that could then be extended to other forms of wealth. Socage could be used in highly flexible ways. The charge might take the form of an amount per acre, but that amount might be different depending on where the land was in the country, whether it was close to a city or deep in the country, what the designated use was of the land (e.g. agriculture or housing – note that this could be used to disincentivise land-banking) and whether the government had any regional or industrial policies in the area in which the land sat. Laffer is right that stamp duty is a bad kind of property tax. But the right alternative isn't to breach the seal on wealth taxes, creating many bad follow-on precedents. Instead we could replace stamp duty with socage – a highly flexible new revenue stream for governments useful for many policy areas.
CTV News
14-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Century 21 Dome Realty Inc - What you need to know on Form 917 & Multiple offer presentations
Regina Watch Sara Mckinley from Century 21 Dome Realty Inc shares with us important pointers on Form 917 & Multiple offer presentations in housing markets. #sponsoredcontent
CBC
06-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
GTA home sales fell more than 20% in April, real estate board says
Social Sharing Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were down 23.3 per cent in April amid continued uncertainty over the economy. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) said 5,601 homes were sold last month, compared with 7,302 in April 2024, while sales were up 1.8 per cent from March on a seasonally adjusted basis. The board said 18,836 new properties were listed in the GTA last month, up 8.1 per cent compared with last year. With inventory continuing to rise and prices falling, the preconditions for a housing rebound are in place, the board said, but that likely won't happen until economic confidence is restored. "Following the recent federal election, many households across the GTA are closely monitoring the evolution of our trade relationship with the United States," said TRREB president Elechia Barry-Sproule in a news release. "If this relationship moves in a positive direction, we could see an uptick in transactions driven by improved consumer confidence and a market that is both more affordable and better supplied," she said. Active listings up 54% compared to last April: board The average selling price decreased 4.1 per cent compared with a year earlier to $1,107,463, and the composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 5.4 per cent year-over-year. Active listings hit 27,386 last month, up 54 per cent from April 2024's inventory of 17,783 units. "Inventory levels remained elevated historically in April, pointing to substantial choice for households looking to purchase a home in the GTA," said TRREB chief information officer Jason Mercer in a news release. "Right now, resale housing supply is increasing in the GTA. However, as demand picks up and the population continues to grow with immigration, we will need to build more homes." In the City of Toronto, there were 2,129 sales last month, a 17.7 per cent decrease from April 2024. Throughout the rest of the GTA, home sales fell 26.4 per cent to 3,472. All property types saw fewer sales in April compared with a year ago throughout the region. The steepest decline was in the condo market, where 30.4 per cent fewer properties sold, followed by townhouses with 22.9 per cent fewer sales and detached houses recording a 21.7 per cent decrease. There were 10 per cent fewer sales of semi-detached homes.
