Nowadays, there's very little to write home about the overall U.S. housing market. True, some areas, including the metropolitan Las Vegas, are showing cautious signs of the slump being at or near the bottom, which is very encouraging. Yet, the recovery to a healthy environment will likely be slow and long and probably infested with a few more bumps. 

 While the mood here can understandably be fluid, those in Europe and Asia and other far-flung places looking in are seeing a great opportunity. The reasons to that are pretty obvious. Domestic real estate prices have taken a beating in many popular destinations like Florida, California and Las Vegas, so simply put there is great value to be had. To many foreign buyers it's like a one grand sale event and they want to take advantage of it while it lasts.

 The U.S. dollar has also seen better days, much better in fact, giving the international investor another incentive to come over and acquire property that a few years ago was clearly out of his reach. Many of them understand how markets work and now two, not just one, key elements here, real estate and currency, are down and this kind of opportunity may not happen again in a long while. As an added bonus, mortgage money continues to be very affordable and widely available with a decent down payment. To the savvy investor from abroad, all the lights should be showing green.

 Moreover, in the global family, the U.S. as a marketplace is still viewed as the venue to go to for opportunity and long-term economic health. Nevertheless, it admittedly does get spanked hard every so often for indiscretions, like right now, but time and again it has proven strong bounce-back ability. What comes with that is the confidence factor and it plays a large role in all of this.