Foreign Buyers Swoop Up American Property Due to Weak Dollar

Stephane Torriglia flew in from Spain about a month ago to check out a rowhouse for sale on Capitol Hill and declared it the "perfect" buy for someone like him, a foreign businessman with euros to invest.

"The idea is we'll convert our euros into dollars," Torriglia said. "We can rent the place out. Maybe in five years or six, the dollar will be strong again and the real estate will gain value. It's an opportunity."

With the U.S. dollar at its weakest level in decades, international buyers are chasing housing bargains here, eager to take advantage of their purchasing power and the declining prices in some of the best-known U.S. cities.

Against that backdrop, the Washington area is luring more than the usual crowd of diplomats. Now that the dollar is cheap, the region's appeal has broadened, enticing international business types and sophisticated investors who find comfort in the area's global reputation as a recession-proof market.

Several area real estate agents said inquiries from abroad have at least doubled since a year ago, mostly from wealthy Europeans and people in such growing economies as India and Russia, where the currencies are gaining against the dollar. Some are making all-cash offers. Even Web sites are seeing a surge in page views from overseas. The international traffic for D.C. area listings was recently up 60 percent year over year on http://Zillow.com, a popular real estate Web site.

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