International Buyers Are Pulling Back Nationally.
Sarasota Sellers Should Still Pay Attention.

Every summer, the National Association of REALTORS® publishes the one report that actually measures who’s buying U.S. real estate from outside the country. Not anecdotes, not vibes, but a real 4,970-agent survey. The 2026 edition just landed, covering April 2025 through March 2026. The headline number isn’t good: foreign buyers spent $45.3 billion on existing U.S. homes this year, a 19.1% drop in dollar volume and the second-lowest unit count NAR has recorded since it started tracking this in 2009.

If a national pullback were the whole story, this wouldn’t be worth a blog post. It’s not the whole story.

What actually happened

Look past the topline number and the picture gets more specific, and more useful for a Sarasota seller:

• Buyers are pulling back in volume, but not in purchasing power. The median foreign buyer paid $465,000, well above the $413,600 median for all U.S. buyers.
• 48% of foreign buyers paid all cash, compared to 28% of the overall market. Financing conditions that slow down a typical buyer barely register with this group.
• Canada and Mexico produced the most buyers by unit count; China’s buyer count declined, but Chinese buyers still spent more per purchase than anyone else, averaging roughly $1 million.
• Referrals, such as personal contacts, past clients, repeat buyers, these accounted for the majority of how agents actually connected with these buyers. Online search and paid ads were a distant third.

That last point is the one worth sitting with. It’s not a coincidence that it’s also how this business runs.

Florida still wins

Even in a down year nationally, Florida held its position as the top destination for foreign buyers, roughly 1 in 5 nationwide, ahead of California and Texas. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, put it simply: “Florida, with its beaches and favorable winter climate, continues to be the top state to draw foreign buyers.”

What this means if you’re selling in Sarasota

A smaller, more concentrated pool of international buyers isn’t the same as no pool. What’s shrinking is the casual, financing-dependent, price-sensitive segment. What’s holding up is exactly the buyer a $3M+ Sarasota listing is built for: cash-ready, unbothered by rate environments, arriving through a trusted introduction rather than a listing portal.

If you’re weighing whether an international buyer strategy still makes sense for your home, the honest answer is: it depends less on the national number and more on who’s already in your agent’s network. A smaller pool rewards precision, not volume. The agent who can put your listing in front of the right handful of people beats the agent chasing broad international exposure every time.

Curious how this applies to your specific property or timeline? Start a confidential conversation with Brian.

 

Source: National Association of REALTORS®, 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report (published July 29, 2026).