The Austin Business Journal published a piece on Austin’s value in the international real estate market.  Austin IS holding strong, and international investors are capitalizing on what local investors are shying away from:  opportunity.  With steady growth and real estate appreciation rates, Austin is stable.  With the real estate world crashing in on itself all around us, Austin is stable.

The report from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate ranks members’ top cities for U.S. and global investment in 2009. Austin ties for 11th place in the new survey, up from 16th place in 2008.

The only element to Austin’s real estate market that is not stable is the emotional factor.  There is no escaping the news and the horror stories of what is happening around the country and Austinites wonder “are we next”?  While we worry, foreign investors are setting themselves up to make money from our panic.

With 37 percent of member’s votes in the survey, the United States ranked first among nations in terms of opportunities for capital appreciation, followed by Brazil, China, the United Kingdom and India in that order.

The world knows that we are strong, and that Austin is one of the strongest cities in the country.  Why don’t we?