Inman News - Real Estate News and Advice for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

South Koreans bullish on U.S.

With the blessing of their government, South Koreans are accelerating the pace of investment in U.S. companies and real estate. In the first three months of 2006, South Koreans invested $570 million in America, compared to $1.27 billion in all of 2005. The South Korean government has eased restrictions on citizens' overseas investments in the hopes of keeping the won from gaining too much on the dollar, the Wall Street Journal reports (if the won gets too pricey, that could hurt Korea's exports to the U.S.).

It's hard to say how much Koreans are spending on U.S. real estate, as opposed to stocks and other investments, but the Journal reports that more than half the buyers at a new 344-unit luxury condo on the Hudson River in West York, N.J. hail from the land of kimchi and Hyundai. Korean investors think the dollar will strengthen, and that even though the U.S. housing market has cooled they'll get better returns than in Korea, where taxes on real-estate profits discourage investment.
--Matt Carter, Inman News