Florida still target for foreign homebuyers

Real estate agents find potential homebuyers from all walks of life. But a new report from the National Association of Realtors suggests it might be time for agents to brush up on their Mandarin, or at least their Hindi.

Home sales to foreign buyers last year hit $104 billion, nearly 8% of total home sales nationwide. And those non-American buyers are looking big -- the average purchase is a little less than $500,000, compared with just half that from American buyers.

More than half of all foreign purchases come from five countries: Canada, China, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom.

Florida leads all states with 21% of the total market share, the report shows, compared with 16% from California. Florida's biggest draw is Latin America, including Mexico, which accounts for 35% of total international sales between March 2014 and March 2015. Canada and Europe make up 28%, while Asian buyers account for 8% of international buyers in the Sunshine State.

So what's attracting them? Beaches and sunshine is a good start, but so are average prices well below what people are used to back home. For instance, the median price of a condo in the Sarasota market last quarter was $174,000. A comparable apartment in Toronto, however, is priced at $355,440. A place in France? $4.1 million.

These sales might not hit the Gulf Coast for a little while. Even as more direct international flights start to come into Tampa International Airport, foreign home shoppers on Realtor.com seemed to have little interest in Tampa, according to the report. Although Cape Coral and Naples were more popular, the west coast will continue to have to compete with Miami and Orlando — two cities second only to Los Angeles when it comes to home searches.