The 13 million Asians living in the U.S. have historically tended to earn more and have less debt than other minority groups. A recent census report, however, shows that Asians suffered a greater drop in homeownership last year than whites, blacks and Hispanics. The 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census found that the overall U.S. homeownership rate fell to the lowest in six years—66.6 percent. The rate of home ownership for Asians fell even lower to 59.4 percent. This is a reversal after the housing boom years when minorities in the U.S. took advantage of easy access to financing to purchase homes.

The Asian population is largely concentrated in west and east coast states and Illinois, with about one-third of Asians living in California. The sharp drop in their home ownership in 2008 may be due in part to California’s plummeting home values and skyrocketing foreclosure rates. The rate of home ownership may drop even more in 2009, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

Many of the world’s commercial real estate markets are showing some stabilization and recovery at the mid-point 2009, CB Richard Ellis reports. One notable exception is the United States where vacancy rates in the office, industrial and retail property markets continued to rise in the second quarter of 2009. Positive developments in international commercial markets included:

• an uptick in investment sales volume in Asia, where the market has adjusted quickly and pricing may have hit bottom in some cities in the second quarter.
• stabilization of property markets in the Pacific region after 18 months of turmoil.
• increased activity in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) investment market to €13 billion from €11.6 billion in the first quarter of 2009, with expectation for further improvement in the fourth quarter.

The prospects for commercial real estate during the balance of this year remain mixed. “It is startling how much more optimism is found in Asia, compared with investor sentiment in mature economies,” said Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE’s Global Chief Economist. “It is obvious that the countries most burdened with weak credit institutions are in for a longer recovery period than others. While the severe recession of the last year was synchronized across the globe, the recoveries will widely vary, determined mostly by the strength of a country’s banking system.” For another International real estate news source or Denver real estate trends I invite you to visit our Denver real estate website.

Don’t miss the FIABCI-Fall conference coming to Denver, September 11-13, 2009.  The event is to be held at the Downtown Denver Ritz-Carlton.

FIABCI aims to bring you into the fold of a family of people, all embracing cultural diversity, united in one common goal: to erase the borders in international real estate and provide the world with a team of experts ready to meet their property needs.

Visit the FIABCI-USA website for more information.