“The market will surely be dynamic in the coming years because Berlin remains an attractive place internationally,” Mr. Binsfeld said. "But it will still take years before Berlin develops a healthy and dynamic economic structure.” In the meantime, Berlin’s market continues to be attractive, particularly for buyers from Ireland, Britain and the United States, with many treating the properties as investments rather than second homes, real estate analysts say.  But not the Browns. Distance is practically no problem for the couple, as Mr. Brown, who is now retired, spent more than 30 years as a pilot, first for Pan Am and then for Delta, guaranteeing him good deals on tickets. And the couple’s ease with international travel has led them to fly to Paris or London for dinner or make quick jaunts to India and Kenya. “Who cares if it’s a long flight?” Mrs. Brown said. “You only live once.”  Although Mrs. Brown had long dreamed of a return to her hometown, she was wary of pressuring her husband. “I didn’t really think Kevin would be interested, because it’s a long way, and I didn’t know it was so reasonable,” she said. “In the end, it was he who said, ‘Let’s go.’ ”  They began by searching the Internet for available apartments, and made several appointments to look at places, none of which worked out. During one of their four trips to the German capital in recent months, they wandered into the office of Engel & Völkers, a luxury real estate agency, where a broker, Ralf Cremer, showed them the apartment.  “We had fantastic views in our homes in San Francisco and the apartment in New York, so we were looking for that," Mr. Brown said. Instead, they fell in love with the one-bedroom apartment, which has a balcony big enough for a table and chairs and a view of the tree-lined street of late 19th century Gründerzeit apartment buildings, although it really does not rival the scenes outside their other homes’ windows.  Their new address puts them close to Kufürstendamm, the main shopping mile in the western part of the city, and as attractive an area for foreigners as east Berlin’s blossoming Mitte district. “It’s the only alternative to Mitte, which is similar to Kufürstendamm, with its restaurants and bars,” he said.  The prospect of looking around in Mitte, where large, tastefully renovated turn-of-the-20th-century apartments were fetching reasonable prices, did not even occur to her. “I wouldn’t even think of going there,” she said. “It’s a completely different city.”  “For us,” Mr. Brown added, “this is the center of Berlin.”  After looking at the apartment for a second time in February, they decided to buy and paid 180,000 euros (more than $240,000). Taxes and fees represented about 13 percent of that cost.  The apartment’s previous owner had made extensive renovations to maintain the classic, Gründerzeit interior of the place, and the Browns, who had invested time and sweat in fixer-uppers in both San Francisco and New York, were happy to just move in.  So far they have bought a bed, which arrived in May, just a few days before they did; a red couch; and some pieces of African art from a store that was going out of business.  On a recent visit, Ms. Brown moved about the kitchen preparing coffee and cakes, and reveling in their new life on the streets where she grew up. “What do we intend to do in Berlin?” she said. “Whatever we feel like. Go to restaurants in the neighborhood, stroll our new leafy neighborhood and stop in the many sidewalk restaurants — and eat all the things that I can’t get in the States.”  The couple plan to come over every six weeks and stay for a week or so. Their dog and garden in San Francisco are the only hindrances to longer stays. “Our house in San Francisco is my home,” she said. “But this is my city.”
It was Berlin’s reputation as a good real estate buy that prompted Marianne Brown and her husband, Kevin, to invest in the city that brought them together more than 40 years ago.