Real Estate in Northeast Florida and Around the World

I just returned from exploring several Baltic Sea nations, visiting several remarkable cities.  The weather ranged from sunshine and the upper 70's on the day of our arrival into Northern Europe, to the upper 40's and sideways blowing rain.....the cold, wind and rain was our traveling companion on most of our journey, topped by near hurricane force winds on our last night at sea.  Talk about memorable journeys, this one ranks near the top!

I learned several things while I was on this journey about how people in northern Europe live.  First - cold, wind and rain do not stop them from living their lives.  They walk, bike and go about their lives regardless of the weather.  Secondly, they live in about half the space that most of us enjoy, with so much less than what we require on a daily basis.  And thirdly, they pay so much for the things that we pay much less for.

Housing - a basic need for all of us - seems to go on endlessly in these cities, but in a much different format that what we are used to here in the States.  Densly populated apartment "flats", go on forever.  Whether the building was 500 years old, or a recently converted "communist era" building, the density of housing in a square kilometer astounded me.  And for the price - in St. Petersburg, Russia, you too can have a 700 square foot apartment with lower range finishes, starting at about $100,000 - and at 24% financing, who wouldn't jump on that?  And in Germany, the same $100,000 will buy you a little bigger place (maybe 800 square feet) with more modern conveniences and better rates, but you will need at least 50% down - and that is if you are native to Germany.  And in Finland and Sweden, have your own little sauna where you can enjoy sweating out all the impurities, then jumping in almost freezing water to close the pores......several times a week.  Brrr!!!!

In speaking with real estate professionals in these cities, I heard repeatedly - from Denmark, to Estonia, to Germany and Switzerland - they all want to know what is really happening with the market in the United States, because they know, when we begin to see improvement, their markets will improve as well.  The old saying "When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches the flu" is so true.  My response to them - America still has a bit of the sniffles, but we are up and at it again, moving slowly but getting back to what we do - work, make money and enjoy our lives!  I shared with them that our local Northeast Florida market is seeing signs of life.  It was wonderful to have the exchange of information on global markets from professionals in the field in Europe. 

The opportunity to expand my global real estate network not only helps my international customer base, but my domestic base as well, by developing a deeper understanding that each market while different from each other, are related in many ways.  But, I also know that I cannot predict what another market may do, so to have direct contacts in other areas of our nation and the world make it so important when I am providing my customers with real estate investment information.

So, what I learn everytime I venture out of my "backyard", is that there are wonderful, historic places that our ancestors came from, that help me figure out this patchwork quilt we call "America", but at the end of my journey, I continue to tell myself "There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home".......

See ya around the neighborhood!