The US is special insofar as the US stock market is extraordinarily safe with many options for value investing. In much of the rest of the world it's the reverse: domestic stocks are risky and it's real estate, land and gold that are the safe, prestige assets.

When you add in an unstable environment at home, this mentality leads to foreign real estate being perceived as the ultimate asset. It's perception rather than reality because foreign real estate is not exactly a good investment, especially if non-resident: it's illiquid, highly taxed, requires insurance, is easy to confiscate, etc.