By SANETTE TANAKA, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Where do home buyers from foreign countries go to hit the slopes? The British love Aspen, Colo. Canadians seek out Big Sky, Mont. And Aussies flip for Park City, Utah.

Those are three of the top ski destinations in the U.S. that were searched online from abroad between July 2011 and June 2012, according to real-estate website Trulia .
In the Trulia analysis of six ski areas—Aspen, Vail and Telluride in Colorado; Jackson Hole, Wyo., Big Sky and Park City—five see the most views from Canada, the U.K. and Australia. But Vail, Colo., sees the most traffic from Mexico.

Foreign buyers tend to zero in on properties that are amenity-rich, as the properties are usually a second or third home. Rustic log cabins and ski-in-ski-out mountain chalets are at the top of their wish lists, says Lisa Delaney, vice president of marketing for Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty.
Ms. Delaney says the international client base for Jackson Hole has grown nearly 10% over the past year.

“You used to go to the ski areas and only hear English,” she says. “Now you hear all sorts of languages. It really feels like an international resort.”
According to Trulia, France ranks No. 3 in top foreign views for Jackson Hole.

David Bernand moved from Saint-André-d’Apchon, France, to the U.S. in 1999 and eventually settled in a two-story log cabin in Jackson Hole. For ski lovers like Mr. Bernand, Jackson Hole is particularly appealing because its rugged landscape is similar to the Alps.

“The way it looks, with the mountains, pine trees and wildlife, is exactly like France,” he says. “It looks like the Alps in many ways, but here it’s steeper. The Alps have more layers of mountain between the valleys.”
Mr. Bernand, general manager of Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, estimates about 30 French countrymen live nearby.

Park City, Utah, came on the international map after nearby Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. That publicity, plus direct flights from Los Angeles, Vancouver and Paris, made it a popular destination for foreign investors, says David Johnson, managing broker at Summit Sotheby’s International Realty.

But the trend of foreign lookers overall is on the downswing, says Jed Kolko, chief economist and head of analytics at Trulia. Foreign investors are attracted to bargains, he says. “We find that as prices are rising in the U.S., the share of searches coming from foreigners is actually going down.”