Foreigners warm to investing in U.S. real estate

In a survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), two thirds of the organization’s 200 members said they plan to invest some debt or equity in U.S. real estate before 2009 is over. However, three quarters of them have yet to do so.

Investors’ ranking of the three cities that they expect to recover first are Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco, unchanged since last January’s survey.

“Twice as many respondents named Washington as their city of choice over second-place New York,” said AFIRE chief executive James Fetgatter.