Property in America: In the land of opportunities

The US housing market crash dwarfs our own - but now could be the time to buy, says Graham Norwood of the Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk)

The 2008 crash in British housing prices began in a land far, far away - the USA, to be precise. But whereas our slump shows no signs of bottoming out, across the Atlantic it’s a different story. Property prices are now so low that for some, investing in real estate seems irresistible. Sheila Harrison, a commercial property agent from Bedfordshire, has just bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Naples, on the west coast of Florida, for $200,000 (£100,015). This was only 50 per cent of its value in late 2007, but she reckons its price will bounce back in the years to come."It’s not actually an investment," says Harrison, a commercial property agent who lives in Ampthill and runs her business in Luton. "It’s a second home in a place I love and I’m not going to rent it out. But I’ve studied the US market and prices aren’t going to go down forever."It isn’t just a case of the pendulum swinging. "The dollar-sterling exchange rate is fabulous and prices in the US are so low," she says. "For £100,000, I’ve got a home that was built for domestic buyers, so it has a top specification. The developer needed to sell quickly, so I’ve got a bargain."She is not the only Briton defying the gloomy headlines about the American market….