Indians Join Wave Of Home Buyers In US: NYT

WASHINGTON: Affluent Indians as also the not-so-super rich Indians are joining a wave of foreign property buyers, who see the recovering U.S housing market as a safe haven for their money, according to the New York Times.

While for affluent Indians, American real estate is a security blanket in the face of a bubble in real estate prices in major Indian cities, many less-than-super rich foreign investors just want a safe place to put extra savings, it said.

For Indians in particular, who long trusted in gold to protect their wealth, American real estate offers a "very, very attractive destination", Subir Gokarn, director of research at Brookings India in New Delhi, was quoted as saying.

The wealthy elite from China, Latin America and elsewhere have bought apartments in glassy towers in Manhattan, luxury condos in Miami and homes along the West Coast.

But the most popular property searches for people from India were in and around Silicon Valley, where technology firms heavily recruit from India, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, an online marketplace for residential real estate.

Also popular were the Boston and Philadelphia areas near universities that have numerous students from India, suburban areas of New Jersey and in Queens, where there are established Indian-American communities.

In an echo of the late 1980s, foreign investment in U.S, real estate has taken off with foreign buyers now making up 7 percent of total existing-home sales of $1.2 trillion, the Times said citing a survey from the National Association of Realtors.

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