Are foreign buyers the salve for housing's ills?

Ever hopeful for a sign of a housing recovery, real estate people are once again burning incense at the altar of the foreign buyer.

You've probably heard the spiel: Germans, Frenchmen and Brits loaded down with overvalued Euros and British Pounds bargain hunting for Florida real estate and soaking up all those surplus condos on the market.

Here's the latest take along these lines from the Florida Association of Realtors.

I thought I'd call a genuine European, and a home developer to boot, for enlightenment. Beat Kahli, who's German Swiss, made some cautionary points you don't often read about.

It's true Euros buy a lot more dollars than they used to. That makes American real estate seem cheap. But most people forget how many Europeans got burned by the recent dollar and home price declines.

Kahli gave an example of the Germans who gobbled up investment homes in Fort Myers near the peak of the market. Not only have home values fallen, but when they try to reconvert their dollars into their native currencies, they discover the dollar's lost 25 percent against the Euro. Talk about double whammies.

According to Kahli, Europeans could plunge into our market again if real estate prices keep falling and the dollar remains weak. That way they can reap any home price rebound and make extra cash on the currency exchange when and if the dollar strengthens against the Euro.

So don't forget to leave out the Wilkommen mat.