The biggest World Cup in history is happening right now
From June 11 to July 19, 2026, the FIFA World Cup is being co-hosted across 16 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico — the largest edition the tournament has ever staged. For the first time, 48 national teams are competing, and an estimated 6 million or more international visitors are expected to travel across North America to follow them. For millions of fans from Europe, Latin America, and Asia, this summer is their first time setting foot on U.S. soil.
That matters far beyond football. A global sporting event of this scale is, in effect, the largest tourism marketing campaign the American South has ever received for free. Visitors who arrive for a match spend a week experiencing the cost of living, the climate, the friendliness, and the sheer amount of space and value the U.S. offers compared to the world\'s major cities. And a recurring pattern follows every host nation: a meaningful share of those visitors return — not as tourists, but as property owners.
The PipelineThe documented “visitor-to-buyer” pipeline
International buying in the U.S. is already surging. Between April 2024 and March 2025, foreign buyers purchased 78,100 U.S. existing homes worth $56 billion — a 44% jump in transactions and a 33% jump in dollar volume, the first year-over-year increase since 2017, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The median foreign-buyer purchase price hit a record $494,400, and 47% of those buyers paid all cash.
Host markets are seeing the leading edge of the World Cup effect first. In South Florida, brokers have reported rising foreign-buyer interest as international fans plan trips around the tournament and tour neighborhoods between matches. The dynamic is intuitive: a visitor who falls in love with a place on a two-week trip starts researching what it would cost to own there, and the most motivated convert into buyers over the following one to two years. With Canada and Mexico — two of the top five countries buying U.S. homes by dollar volume — co-hosting this year, cross-border curiosity is higher than it has been in nearly a decade.
Top BuyersWhere the demand is coming from
| Country | Dollar Volume | Share of $ Volume |
|---|---|---|
| China | $13.7B | ~24% |
| Canada | $6.2B | ~11% |
| Mexico | $4.4B | ~8% |
| India | $2.2B | ~4% |
| United Kingdom | $2.0B | ~4% |
Top five foreign-buyer countries by dollar volume, April 2024 – March 2025 (NAR). Florida captured roughly 21% of all foreign-buyer activity, California 15%, Texas 10%, New York 7%, and Arizona 5%. North Carolina has historically drawn around 3–4% — a share with clear room to grow.
Why North Carolina WinsNC benefits even though it isn’t a host city
North Carolina is not one of the 16 host venues — and that is precisely why it is so well positioned for the after-wave. When international visitors compare what their money buys in the marquee host metros versus what it buys here, the contrast is striking. NC\'s median home price is roughly $338,000, a fraction of the cost of an equivalent home in Miami, New York, Toronto, or London. For a buyer used to global-city pricing, North Carolina delivers space, land, and new construction at a value that feels almost unreal.
Geography helps too. NC sits within an easy drive or short flight of host-city action, and it is genuinely connected to the world: Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) and Charlotte Douglas — a major American Airlines hub — both offer direct international flights to Europe and beyond. That makes transatlantic ownership and regular visits practical rather than aspirational.
- Affordability: a $338K median versus far pricier coastal and host metros.
- Low taxes: a flat income tax dropping from 4.25% toward 3.99%, a 0.62% effective property tax, and no estate tax.
- Growth economy: the #1 U.S. state for domestic migration (84,000+ net movers in 2025) with $15B+ in annual corporate investment.
- Universities: Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State anchor a global talent magnet in the Research Triangle.
- Climate & variety: four mild seasons, with the mountains and the coast each only a few hours away.
Add the broader cost-of-living advantage and NC becomes the rational landing spot for a fan who arrived for the football and left thinking about a longer stay. You can dig into the numbers on our cost of living breakdown, and explore the two markets best wired for international demand — Charlotte for banking and global flights, and the Triangle for tech and universities.
Next StepsWhat an interested international fan should do next
If a trip to North America this summer has you imagining owning a piece of it, the good news is that the path is more open than most visitors assume. There are no citizenship or residency restrictions on owning U.S. real estate — foreign nationals buy, hold, and sell on the same legal footing as Americans, and closings can be handled remotely from abroad. A few practical first moves:
- Define your goal: lifestyle home, student housing for a child at a U.S. university, vacation property, or investment.
- Confirm how you’ll pay: all cash (as nearly half of foreign buyers do) or a foreign-national/ITIN mortgage, which typically requires 25–40% down.
- Pick a market: the Triangle, Charlotte, the coast, the mountains, or the Pinehurst golf corridor.
- Tour virtually: live video walk-throughs let you shop confidently from another time zone.
- Line up the right team: a local agent plus a cross-border lender and tax advisor make the rest straightforward.
For the full walkthrough of financing, taxes, and remote closing, see our complete international buyers guide. When you’re ready to talk specifics, reach out to Kim — she works in your time zone and guides international buyers from first question to keys in hand.