Hi Surfrider,
I'm new to this forum, but about USA property, I guess it depends on your strategy, in particular your exit strategy. Florida prices are getting hammered right now (oversupply and sub-prime market defaults).
I'm looking at the USA right now (yes, at $2.05 to the £
), but I have a very specific goal. I'm lucky enough to have lived through two UK property cycles, and have some cash to spare. Whilst my strategy in the UK is to extract maximum equity with high gear mortgaging, my initial strategy in the USA would be to buy very high yielding properties for cash, then mortgage to 80% of OMV after one year. Look at Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse in Western New York. The headline yield figures are above 30%, but when you account for all costs to landlord, it's more like 12 to 15%. Still outstanding, so I'm taking a trip over there as soon as I can arrange it.
My exit strategy for these is (maybe never). If cash on cash return is 13%, then geared return is about 26% without any capital appreciation, and I could retire on that if I bought about $1M worth.
