The Wealthy are Back and Ready to Buy Real Estate

I read this article today at Luxury Insights:

FAST FACTS about the world’s wealthy: The wealthy are back and ready to buy real estate.
Posted: 01 Aug 2012 07:49 AM PDT

If you are seeing an increase in luxury buyers in your market, there are at least two good reasons why.

1.       The number of worldwide wealthy has recovered from the 2008 downturn, when the number of HNWIs plummeted from 10.1 million to 8.6 million in just one year. The current HNWI number has risen to a record 11 million.

Total wealth controlled by wealthy households has also increased since a five year low point in 2008, rising from $32.8 million to $42.0.

These statistics from The Capgemini/RBC World Wealth Report for 2012, offer good news for luxury real estate since demand for homes depends heavily upon the number of households who can afford them.

2.       The post-recession affluent are also in a home shopping mood. Research done last year by Barclay’s found that 57% of HNWIs want to increase their residential property portfolios in 2012. This buying attitude is most likely a result of lifestyle desires as well as the view that residential real estate is an investment opportunity and smart portfolio play.

Here’s what one billionaire has to say about buying luxury property now.

“Trophy (property) assets are probably the most resilient and successful investment options at the moment, and will be for the foreseeable future.”

–John Caudwell, Billionaire , 2012

Top 10 U.S. real estate hotspots for international house hunters

I recently read this article on Inman News online…
Florida is top state, Las Vegas the No. 1 city
By Inman News, Thursday, February 2, 2012

Florida remained the most popular U.S. property search destination among foreign house hunters during the last three months of 2011, according to a quarterly report from real estate technology and marketing company Point2.

Point2′s International Real Estate Traffic Report, which debuted in December, tracks visits from non-U.S. consumers to listings pages on the company’s public-facing property portal, Point2Homes.

You can continue to read the full story here>>>

More Millionaires in 2020

I wanted to share this article with you.  It is from Daily Finance.

Many More Millionaires by 2020: How Will Your State Stack Up?
By Dawn Kawamoto
Posted 3:30PM 05/05/11    Retirement, Economy, Investing

Prepare yourself for the decade of the multiplying millionaires: By the end of 2020, the number of affluent households that will cross the line into seven-figure status is expected to virtually double the ranks of millionaires in the United States, according to a study by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

The number of millionaires is forecast to rise 72.5% to 65.5 million worldwide by 2020 from about 38 million this year. In the United States, home to nearly half the world’s millionaires, the increase is expected to be even sharper: a 96.2% jump to 20.6 million. The estimates of household wealth are based both on financial assets such as stocks and bonds, and nonfinancial assets like primary residences and business ownership.

How much wealth are we talking about? …. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Where the Wealthy Will Be
In the U.S., California, Texas, New York and