Those with means and resources can purchase real estate around the globe. This is essential for development in many locations, including major cities as well as vacation destinations in Europe:

From Lisbon to the Greek islands, the Americans are back, ready to take advantage of the buyer’s market in many of Europe’s leading resort areas. There are bargains to be had at the entry and mid-levels, with prices buoyant at the top end…

Knight Frank last week released its Global Residential Cities Index for the first quarter of 2021, giving a view of price changes from the year-earlier period, when lockdowns began to take hold world-wide. It shows double-digit increases clustered in the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe, while prime European second-home destinations that had been inching toward the top in previous years—including Lisbon and Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol—are seeing declines…

Americans typically play a niche role in Southern Europe’s luxury second-home markets, which tend to be dominated by sun-hungry Northern Europeans. But they have traditionally made themselves more conspicuous at the very top of those markets.

This is different than Americans looking for relatively inexpensive places to retire; this is about finding real estate to invest in and profit from in the long term in desirable locations. This is an opportunity to make money in locations where prices have decreased, in contrast to numerous markets in and around big cities where prices have increased for years. Homes are places to enjoy and to invest in, as sociologist Brian McCabe argues. Being wealthy and staying wealthy can depend, in part, on buying real estate when it is available and then profiting later.

All of this is an opportunity that most Americans do not have or could not even dream about. A second home in a foreign country? The ability to travel there regularly? Being able to sell this property later and/or pass down profits to heirs? Just as those featured on HGTV’s International House Hunters are a select group, those who can take advantage of a European buyer’s market are limited.