By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
International homebuyers are typically affluent homebuyers. But where to find them in Jacksonville is the trick.
One portal, in theory, is universities, where a new crop of students turn up regularly, including a handful foreign nationals.
NEFAR’s Global Business Council threw out the welcome mat. In May the group hosted Ruth Lopez, associate director for the University of North Florida’s International Center, to speak at their breakfast meeting.
College students may not seem like the ideal home buying candidate. But many foreign students have parents who are wealthy. Some choose to buy and later resell, rather than rent housing for their children studying in the U.S.
Lopez confirmed this sometimes has been the case for UNF’s foreign students.
“We have seen some parents who have bought homes in the Kernan Boulevard area near the university that they were buying for their children,” she said.
The parents also sometimes pool resources with other families, either to purchase a home, or to rent out a home they’ve already purchased, Lopez said.
About 350 international students attend UNF, but the school hopes to build that number to 1,000 over the next eight years.
Not all students attend long-term. UNF hosts foreign exchange students as well as degree-seeking students.
Foreign exchange students — a student who temporarily “swaps schools” with an American student — come for a semester, or at most, 18 months.
Those students who are here long-term are either in a degree program or are enrolled in UNF’s intensive English Language program.
The top country for degree seeking students at UNF is Brazil.
About five years ago the Brazilian economy shot up and the middle class’ standard of living rose. Education became paramount and being educated abroad in the U.S., even more so.
“Parents in Brazil will go in debt to have the prestige of sending their son or daughter to the U.S. to get a degree,” Lopez said.
Among the foreign students attending UNF, the top degree paths are business and finance, Lopez said. But, those who study in a STEM field — science, technology, engineering or math — could end up sticking around longer.
A U.S. visa allows foreign students to stay in the country, if they get a job, for 12 months after graduation, Lopez said. For students in a STEM field, the U.S. extends the work visa another 18 months.