The euro is hurting — and that’s good for Americans hungry for a deal on a European vacation home.
The dollar has gone up 26 percent against the euro from its low point last year. In fact, the last time the dollar traded this high against the euro was in 2003, according to the Wall Street Journal.
And while that’s encouraging some Europeans to cash out of their Downtown apartments, it’s also presenting an opportunity for Americans to snag a deal on, say, a Tuscan villa or a Parisian pied-à-terre.
“The consensus is that the euro-dollar will be at 1.10 by the end of this year, but a number believe the dollar could be even stronger,” Daragh Maher, FX strategist at HSBC in London, told the Journal.
And real-estate agents in Paris, Tuscany and Barcelona said that since January, they’ve seen an explosion of interest from Americans. Sotheby’s International Realty chief executive Alexander Kraft told the Journal that France and Monaco currently has 30 percent to 35 percent more American clients than in 2012 and 2013. He added that in Paris, Americans could now pay about 40 percent under what they would have in 2012. [WSJ] – Christopher Cameron