Americans who made a huge killing in the 2009-2021 bull market for stocks or in the housing market of the past 18 months might be considering the purchase of a vacation home outside the US
Real estate information service. point2.com, has created a list of the most popular foreign spots in the Americas to search for a vacation home. It looked at the most-searched destinations on the Internet for Americans looking to buy property abroad.
That methodology included more than 2,000 keywords related to real estate in combination with all of the countries and territories in the Americas.
The top 10 countries on the list, ranked by inverse popularity, are:
10. Honduras
9. US Virgin Islands
8. Dominican Republic
7. Bahamas
6. Panama
5. Belize
4. Puerto Rico
3. Costa Rica
2. Canada
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1. Mexico
3. Costa Rica
Home prices are rising there, especially in the south, amid strong demand. Prices for homes in the country — and especially in the southern coastal region — have been rising due to growing demand, according to real estate agents in the area.
Prices in that region soared about 20% in the first quarter of 2022, Tim Fenton, a broker with Blue Zone Realty International told The New York Times. The top three searched cities are Tamarindo, Santa Ana and San Rafael.
2. Canada
The country kept its No.2 ranking, despite a 13% drop in searches from 2021. Vancouver and Toronto remain the first- and second-most searched destinations for American home seekers looking for a vacation home. Montreal was third.
For the median US home price of $405,000 (C$526,000) you could buy:
· A luxury one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver,
· A luxury 500-square foot condo in Toronto, or
· A luxury two-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Montreal.
1. Mexico
The number of monthly searches related to buying real estate in the country soared 60% this year from last year, surpassing 132,000, according to Point2’s report. The three most-searched locations were Puerto Vallarta, Tulum, and San Miguel.
Other Countries Where Americans Buy Vacation Homes
Haiti scored the biggest increase of any country—166% from last year to 1,810 searches per month. That put it at No. 30 on the list.
Chile searches jumped 130%, putting it at No. 14, and Aruba climbed 116%, putting it at No. 12. Both received 7,000 to 8,000 monthly searches from the US alone.
Locations losing interest included Grenada, Guatemala, Ecuador, the US Virgin Islands and even Canada, as mentioned above.
“Clearly, Americans’ desire to find their dream vacation home or forever home just across the northern border is diminishing,” the report said. That could have from the country’s cold climate or harsher conditions imposed on foreign buyers, the report said.