In Florida, foreign buyers help buoy high-end real estate market

In a situation typical of wealthy enclaves across the United States, the glistening waterfront glass towers on Miami Beach, the sprawling estates of Palm Beach and the clustered mansions in Naples continue to sell.

Indeed, Florida homes and condos with price tags of $1 million or more are still changing hands at roughly the same price, albeit not as briskly as they did a year ago, according to real estate data. And the rate of foreclosure for lower-income homes is far greater than for homes over $1 million.

"The very, very high end of the markets in communities such as the Bay area, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Miami and to a lesser degree Chicago, Seattle and Washington that have global appeal have held up much better the rest of the housing market," said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "The top end runs on its own dynamic that tends to be more immune to the ups and downs of the global economy. A recession would certainly not help the high end but it would not undermine it. And much of their buying is done with cash and not affected by the global financial turmoil and its impact on the availability of mortgage."

The Florida market not only continues to appeal to wealthy retirees and to second home buyers, particularly from the Northeastern United States. The state's temperate climate and low taxes have also for years drawn well-healed foreign buyers, which have helped buoy the market's upper end.

Ten percent of all foreign buyers bought homes for $1 million or more, according to the National Association of Realtors' study of home buyers in Florida in 2006. The study also showed that of the foreign buyers 21 percent are from Britain. The next major group is from Latin America: principally Venezuela - 11 percent, followed by Colombia at 4 percent.

On Fisher Island in Miami Beach, a tony private island that has its own golf course, tennis courts and spa, half the island's residents are French, Russian and South American and the balance are U.S. citizens.

The market's higher end remains healthy. In the Miami area, the median price for condos over $1 million is still holding steady at $1.5 million so far this year, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches. And the median price for single family homes has in fact risen to $1.51 million from $1.46 million.

Further north on the exclusive island of Palm Beach, the median prices for both condominiums and single family homes have risen this year, according to data compiled by the Palm Beach real estate lawyer Leslie Evans.