In order to help his clients close on units at the luxury St. Tropez condominium in Sunny Isles Beach, developer Joe Milton recently put up $100 million of his company's cash to set up a mortgage company to fund loans.

That's because foreign buyers -- a key factor in the recent surge in home sales in South Florida -- are often locked out of the market if they don't have cash in hand.

``Sixty percent of our buyers are foreign,'' yet there are no loans being made to foreign nationals, said Milton, president and chief executive of J. Milton & Associates in Coral Gables.

While foreign cash buyers have certainly boosted sales, Milton wants to make sure financing isn't the issue keeping even more from owning a home in South Florida.

``International buyers are activating this market and reactivating sales,'' said Jenny Huertas, the international sales director for Condo Vultures, a Bal Harbour-based brokerage and consultancy.

Huertas returned two weeks ago from Bogotá where she conducted an investment seminar for about 50 people at Gran Estación, one of the city's largest shopping complexes. She's part of a growing caravan of real estate professionals trekking to Latin American and elsewhere to recruit new investors.

The spectacular meltdown of the region's once white-hot housing scene has caught the attention of global buyers who may have once considered U.S. real estate out of reach.

A weak dollar is also giving them an edge. In many areas, residential real estate is selling for 50 percent less -- and even lower -- compared to peak prices. On Friday, the euro closed at $1.473, a penny away from a 14-month high against the dollar.

``The Swiss, Spanish, groups from Italy and England who already own some stuff down here are seeing it as a good time to buy, leveraging the economy and the currency effect,'' said Mike Lapointe, vice president of Baybridge Capital Advisors in Miami.

The Florida Association of Realtors reported recently that the median home price in Miami-Dade fell to $190,900 in September, down 30 percent compared to a year ago. The median condo price fell to $132,900, a drop of 37 percent.

In Broward County, the median single-family home price fell to $200,000 from $259,300, a fall of 23 percent. The median condo price dropped to $78,000 from $129,000 last year, a 40 percent decline.

It adds up to a handsome opportunity for thousands of global buyers. ``Investors are aware that assets have never before been so depreciated in a country like America,'' said Gabriela Guimaraes, a partner with Integra Solutions, a Miami real estate consultancy that advises mostly Brazilian nationals.

Walter Defortuna, chairman of Fortune International Realty, said that for the first time in his 30-year career it's cheaper to buy an apartment in Miami than in major Latin American cities, such as Buenos Aires, Mexico City and large cities in Brazil.

The average price per square foot of a newly built condo in the stylish Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires is about $236, according to Ariel Szeinbaum, general manager of 4RentArgentina.com, which specializes in short-term apartment rentals and sales.

In Miami's Brickell area, new construction is selling for between $200 and $250 per square foot, although in other parts of South Florida the prices drop off significantly, especially on foreclosures and short-sales where lenders allow units to be sold for less than the mortgages owed against them.


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