A. Lee Graham
Reporter
Texas home sales by international homebuyers pumped $11.06 billion into the Texas economy between March 2013 and March 2014 – the highest level in five years, according to a newly released report by the Texas Association of Realtors.
“The Texas housing market is not only strong in sales volume, but in its diversity. The demand for Texas homes stretches around the world,” said Dan Hatfield, chairman of the state association in a news release.
“International homebuyers increasingly view Texas homes as a good investment, and as our economy has grown, so has the number of international homebuyers in our state,” Hatfield said.
International homebuyers represented 7 percent of total U.S. home sales between March 2013 and March 2014, totaling $92.2 billion in sales volume. Twelve percent, or $11.06 billion, of the figure originated in Texas, making the Lone Star State the third-largest in the U.S. for international home sales.
According to the report, naturalized U.S. citizens in Texas are almost 12 percent more likely to own a home than their native counterparts. More than 75 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens in Texas are homeowners compared to only 63.5 percent of native citizens in Texas, according to the report.
More than half of all international homebuyers in Texas live in Latin America or the Caribbean. More than 65 percent of U.S. homes purchased by Mexican homebuyers were in Texas, according to the association.
Texas is home to the third-largest immigrant population size and ranks seventh in the nation for percentage of foreign-born residents among the statewide population. Sic of the top 50 metro areas for immigration in the U.S. are in Texas, according to the association.
The 2014 Texas International Homebuyers Report is based on survey data from the National Associaiton of Realtors’ 2014 Profile of International Home Buying Activity and the 2013 Business Data for Engaging in International Real Estate Transactions in Texas studies; the 2008-2012 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2012 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics by the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics.