Austin is the U.S. city with the most interest from foreign real estate investors this year, a new survey found, signifying a shift in investment toward smaller metropolitan areas as the coronavirus pandemic and rise in remote working pushes people out of large cities. Nearly one in four survey respondents ranked Austin as the top market to increase real estate exposure in this year, while a third ranked it within the top three cities, according to an annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. Austin’s top ranking is a huge jump for Texas’ rapidly-growing capital city—in last year’s survey, it was ranked just tenth by international investors. It’s the first time a tertiary city, or a smaller metropolitan area, has ever ranked in the top three in three decades of AFIRE surveys, the investment association said, and marks a significant shift in investor interest. More than 60% of survey respondents said they expect to bump up their investment in tertiary cities over the next three to five years, and 80% plan to do the same in secondary cities, or medium-sized metropolitan areas. Investors indicated they are less interested in investing in large cities, like New York and Chicago, which were each ranked as one of the top three markets to lower real estate exposure by more than half of survey respondents, along with more than a third who ranked San Francisco in the top three. Click to read more at www.forbes.com.

When the real estate investment platform CrowdStreet was weighing where to relocate its headquarters from Portland, Oregon, its leaders considered a number of factors such as cost of living, the opportunity for growth, and access to a major research university. After some exploring, the choice was clear: Austin, Texas. “We did a search to understand where a majority of the investors were based. Texas came in at No. 2,” says CrowdStreet CEO and Co-Founder Tore Steen. “When looking at all the projects in the marketplace over the past seven years, the state is number one.” Steen adds that Austin also represents a diverse and highly educated population with a quality of life that is very similar to Portland, something that was important to the CrowdStreet team. “I plan to be the first Portland-based employee to move,” Steen says. “All of our employees have been given an option to continue working with our hybrid model (either in-person or remote as it works for them) or make the move to Austin with the help of a relocation package.” Click to read more at www.rednews.com.