Most U.S. real estate markets are still off, but property values in some far-flung locales are heating up. How to dip your toes in foreign investments. IT'S NOW CONVENTIONAL wisdom that anyone who buys houses hoping to make a speculative profit is a fool. Except that "wisdom" is wrong. To begin with, there's no such thing as "the" real estate market-especially when one's perspective is global. While Florida real estate froze after 2005, home prices in Finland moved 25 percent higher in the same period. Singapore apartment prices have increased by more than 38 percent since the fall of 2009. Conversely, there are at least 2 million unsold houses in Spain. The outlook in debt-laden Ireland also is dismal.
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