Is silver the color of real estate recovery?

Some real estate professionals and others are pushing for a unique solution to the current market slump: importing homeowners.

The idea is to encourage wealthy retired people from other nations to relocate to the USA, where they would buy homes and live out their lives while spending their savings on US goods and services. Some are calling this the "silver card" system, like the "green card" that is sought by people hoping to work in the USA.

The National Association of Realtors website says they have directed their staff "to explore the feasibility of creating and implementing a retirement visa or 'silver card' for foreign nationals who are over 55 years of age, have documented income and own U.S. residential real property." A report is expected at the NAR meeting in May 2009.

"Millions of dollars would get spent in this country. It would be a boon to the U.S. economy — to real estate, people buying properties, the automobile industry, the restaurant industry, retail, airline travel, furniture makers, there are so many dimensions," says John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches in Wellington, Florida.

Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, would say that wealthy foreigners should not get special treatment when thousands of others — including relatives of US citizens — are waiting for visas. And whether the "silver card" immigrants could be a drain on the US health care system is another heated question.