The top countries for foreign home searches in the U.S. are Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Brazil.
Nationally, 4.0% of the home searches on Trulia.com between January and May 2014 came from outside the U.S. That's a slight decline from the same period last year, when foreign searches accounted for 4.2% of Trulia's web search traffic. Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany remain the top three countries outside the U.S. for home searches. But Brazil has pushed up to 4 place, jumping ahead of India, Mexico, and Australia. Brazil accounted for 4.1% of foreign search traffic in 2014 versus 2.9% in 2013.
The most striking change in foreign search patterns over the past year is that the foreign search share is rising in dense, urban neighborhoods but falling in vacation areas. In general, these two types of places tend to get more foreign interest than the U.S. overall does: foreign searches accounted for 4.0% of searches for U.S. homes overall, 4.7% of searches in vacation areas, and 9.4% of searches in the densest urban neighborhoods. But these two trends are moving in different directions, as the chart shows.
Note: "dense urban neighborhoods" are ZCTAs (ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, the Census approximation of ZIP codes) with at least 5,000 housing units per square mile. "Vacation areas" are ZCTAs where at least 25% of homes are for seasonal or occasional use.
Underneath these broad trends lie big differences among foreign countries and across U.S. metros neighborhoods. On to the details.
Canadians Lean Toward Vacation Homes, While Brazilians Want Urban Real Estate
Canada is the top foreign country with U.S. home searches, with 19% of all foreign search traffic in 2014 (through May). Relative to other countries, Canadians are also the most drawn to U.S. vacation areas: 11% of Canadian searches were for homes in vacation areas. This is higher than any other country with significant search activity on Trulia. Canada also stands out for its love of Phoenix, which was among the top metros for homes viewed by Canadians but not by searchers from any other country.
In contrast with Canadians, Brazilians tend to look in urban neighborhoods. One quarter of the searches from Brazil were in dense, urban neighborhoods, higher than any other country in the top six for search activity overall. Urban areas were even more popular among house hunters in Australia, France, Italy, and Russia.
Just as house hunters from different countries look in different types neighborhoods, they also look at different types of homes. Among countries with the most search traffic, Australians look at the most expensive for-sale homes, with a median asking price of $625,000. The Dutch, British, and French also tend to look at for-sale homes priced over half a million, while Canadians and Mexicans typically look at quarter-million-dollar homes. However, searchers from Nordic countries look at the most expensive homes, with Finns, Swedes, and Danes all looking at for-sale homes with a median price above one million dollars.
Foreigners Love Miami and Los Angeles, and, Increasingly, New York
Miami remains the metro with the highest share of searches from outside the U.S., widening its lead over Los Angeles - thanks in part to the increase in interest from Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. Foreign searches account for 16.0% of all searches for homes in Miami and 14.5% in Los Angeles - well ahead of other major metros. The top 10 metros for foreign search traffic were in Florida and the West.
The broader trend of foreigners searching more in urban neighborhoods and less in vacation areas has favored some metros over others. Among the top metros for foreign searches, the share of foreign home searches increased most in Miami and New York, which are both dense, urban metros. Meanwhile, the largest decreases were seen in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Lakeland-Winter Haven, and West Palm Beach -- three Florida markets with a high share of vacation homes.
Top Neighborhoods and Vacation Areas for Foreign House Hunters
While foreigners account for just 4.0% of all searches nationally, foreigners account for more than one-third of home searches in a handful of neighborhoods in metro Los Angeles and New York. Bel Air and Beverly Hills - thanks in part to global name recognition - get a higher share of search traffic from outside the U.S. than anywhere else in the country. Several neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan and Midtown Manhattan also make the top 20 list of neighborhoods with high foreign interest, as do oceanfront neighborhoods in Miami and Miami Beach.
Two of the zip codes with the highest share of foreign home searches are vacation areas: Key Biscayne and Miami Beach's Mid-Beach. In fact, many of the vacation areas with the highest foreign search share are in Florida, including Hollywood Beach and Palm Beach in South Florida; and Celebration, Williamsburg/Sea World, and Davenport in Central Florida. The Palm Springs area east of Los Angeles, including Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, and La Quinta, gets strong foreign interest, as do several neighborhoods in the Hamptons on Long Island. Many of the vacation areas with high foreign search shares are expensive and world-famous, like the Hamptons, Aspen, and Pebble Beach.
But if you're looking for a less global vacation spot, there are plenty of popular vacation areas that get little interest from foreign house hunters, such as Cape Cod, MA; Ocean City-Cape May, NJ; Panama City Beach, FL; and Myrtle Beach, SC. Most vacation areas - like most neighborhoods in general - get relatively low shares of foreign search traffic. Foreign interest in U.S. real estate remains highly concentrated in mostly urban neighborhoods, particularly in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, and is increasingly shifting toward high-density urban areas and away from vacation spots.
Note: search traffic is based on properties views on Trulia.com from January to May 2014. Search traffic volume from Nigeria was highly volatile over the past eighteen months and was excluded from the analysis.