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Americans are heading abroad to fulfill their homebuying dreams. According to The New York Times, mortgage rates are running at a 22-year high, deflating the United States housing market, which is already squeezed by high prices. Freddie Mac recently reported that home buyers are up against an average rate of 7.23 percent on a 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage (the highest rate since 2001), the most popular home loan in the United States, compared to a balloon mortgage. A balloon mortgage may have a five-year term and a 30-year amortization. You’ll make the same monthly payment for five years (60 months) that you would have made on the loan with the 30-year term. However, after those payments, you’ll owe all the remaining principal.
The surge in interest rates has slowed down the demand for homes, with the sales of existing homes down significantly from last year. Sellers who have already looked into their rates mortgages due to the pandemic are clinging tightly to their homes, hesitant to put their properties on the market, fearful they will not be able to find a comparable or desired rate when becoming home buyers again. As a solution, some homeowners opt to keep their homes in the States while intentionally expanding their search abroad. Real Estate platform Point2 discovered this year’s 30 most popular home-buying locations for American home seekers. The report identified the new trends taking shape by analyzing buyers’ search patterns and the search volumes for real estate-related keywords, comparing them with results from their 2022 report.
Their findings show the following:
- With 136,530 monthly searches on Google, Mexico retains its #1 position as the most popular home-buying location despite a smaller 3% increase in searches compared to last year. According to user behavior data on our portal, the typical American homebuyer looking for property in Mexico is a Millennial man in the 35 to 44 age group.
- Canada comes in at number two, but the monthly searches jumped by 54% this time since last year’s edition. Moreover, America’s northern neighbor has occupied this position since the first edition of this study in 2015.
- Costa Rica also kept its spot as the third most popular location for Americans searching for homes, closely followed by Puerto Rico. However, while the number of searches for Costa Rica rose by 7% in the last 12 months, those for Puerto Rico dropped by 13%.
- Turks and Caicos saw the most significant spike in interest from American homebuyers, with real estate-related searches climbing by 75% compared to the previous year. Curaçao also entered this year’s top 30 most wanted locations, as the country saw a 52% increase in searches.
- Although Mexico, Canada, and Costa Rica are the top home-buying destinations in the United States, the other locations are Puerto Rico, Belize, Panama, Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Jamaica.
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Mexico earns the number-one spot.
Compared to last year’s period, searches for real estate-related keywords in connection to Mexico and its most desirable locations have only increased by 3%. This is a far cry from last year’s numbers when searches for homes in this country exploded by 60%.
Despite the decrease, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, Cabo San Lucas, and Tulum and Merida remain the most sought-after locations, just like in previous years.
Canada remains number two despite a significant 54% increase in searches.
After the 13% drop that Canada recorded in 2021 and 2022, interest in homes for sale here came back with a bang. In the past 12 months, searches for real estate on the Canadian border skyrocketed by 54%.
Here are Americans’ favorite destinations in Canada: Vancouver, BC; Toronto, ON; Montreal, QC; Calgary, AB; and Ottawa, ON took the top spots, as searches for homes for sale in these cities represented more than 60% of the total searches.
Costa Rica comes in third.
Like Mexico, Costa Rica recorded a more subdued increase than Canada’s 54%, but it’s still ranking highly.
Searches for real estate in Costa Rica increased 7% in the last 12 months. Similar to previous years, locations and cities like Santa Ana, Tamarindo, Jaco, San Rafael, and Nosara capture the imagination of American homebuyers.
Costa Rica is perfect for everyone with its exquisite beaches, lush green rainforests, amazing national parks, and adventure tourism opportunities.