Forbes Billionaires
The precise number of foreign deals for U.S. luxury properties is difficult to calculate because many purchasers are registered as trusts or limited liability companies. Jed Smith, managing director of quantitative research for the National Association of Realtors, says the number of overseas buyers for multimillion-dollar homes is increasing, helped by the rise of emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil, China and India.
"There's substantial growing wealth overseas," Smith says. "Just go to the Forbes list of billionaires and see that we're no longer the only folks on it."
Of the 214 newcomers to Forbes magazine's annual global ranking of billionaires this year, 54 were from China and 31 from Russia. The Asia-Pacific region had more billionaires than Europe for the first time in more than ten years and gained the most of any region, with 105 additions, according to the list. Moscow displaced New York as the city with the greatest number of billionaires with 79, compared with New York's 58.
The Forbes list was topped for a second year by Mexico's Carlos Slim, who in July 2010 bought a Manhattan townhouse known as the Duke Semans mansion for $44 million.
Foreign buyers are also turning to resort locales such as the ski area of Aspen, Colo., says Tim Estin, a broker at Mason Morse Real Estate in the town.
"It's a pre-eminent international mountain resort brand," Estin says of Aspen, where luxury properties are selling at discounts of as much as 30% from the peak.
In the last three years, Aspen had at least five deals above $10 million in which the purchaser was from Russia, according to Craig Morris, president of the town's Morris & Fyrwald Sotheby's International Realty.
"Four years ago we didn't have any Russian buyers," he says.
In Miami Beach, Tariko's home is the city's only sale exceeding $20 million since three lots sold on Star Island for $27 million in April 2006, says Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Inc., a real estate brokerage based in Coral Gables.
Nine Bedrooms
The 15,000-square-foot mansion at 13 Star Island has nine bedrooms, nine full bathrooms and three half-baths, says Shuffield, citing tax records. The driveway is lined with palm trees and the home has views of downtown Miami across Biscayne Bay.