WASHINGTON, DC-As we reported yesterday, Congress is making another attempt to repeal, or at least revamp, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act. The rhetoric against the act is strong and little wonder why: ask anyone involved in commercial real estate investment sales and he or she will tell you: FIRPTA makes foreign investors pause—and more than occasionally go away.

But how much exactly? Logic suggests that it can't be that much--foreign investment inflows into the US market are stronger now than they have been in years. Certainly the stable-and-secure US represents a good deal for foreign investors, despite our current fiscal woes.

Nonetheless the anecdotal evidence proclaiming FIRPTA a drain is strong enough that it cannot be ignored. The problem is, Colliers International associate Chris DiBitetto tells GlobeSt.com, arriving at a specific number or a percentage of investment lost to FIRPTA is nearly impossible. He should know--he tried and failed.

Still, though DiBitetto did come close, close enough that his research into what FIRPTA is costing the US is well worth a look for both advocates of its repeal and critics.

DiBitetto undertook the study of this subject for his MBA at Georgetown University. As part of his May 2013 thesis he gathered a good number of facts and the aforementioned anecdotal evidence.

Both point to the same result: FIRPTA is costing us big time.

"Repealing FIRPTA would significantly increase the flow of foreign investments, specifically sovereign wealth funds, into the United States," his paper concludes, "ultimately strengthening the U.S. real estate market and economy."

DiBitetto spoke with executives from sovereign wealth funds for his paper; the general consensus was that while FIRPTA may limit their investments they still do invest in the US.

He found one fund, The Korea Investment Corp., which was was established by the government in 2005. It is actively investing in global real estate markets yet has deliberately chosen to stay out of the US market because of FIRPTA, according to his paper.

How much of this translates into lost wealth for the US? Again, it is hard to tell, although some judgments can be gleaned from the investment that does come into the country. DiBitetto points to industry figures that show that the wealthiest funds invest most aggressively in real estate. One report found that 83% of funds with assets greater than $250 billion are invested in real estate. Another notes that 50% of SWFs with between $100.149 billion in assets invest in real estate.

"These statistics are significant because they illustrate the level of hunger that these funds have for investment in real estate," DiBitetto writes.

The gem of his report--the closest DiBitetto, or anyone for that matter, get to quantifying the opportunity cost of FIRPTA--comes at the end of his paper.

Since he dug up the figure, it is only fair DiBitetto tells it in his own words:

"In 2010, Congress made its first attempt to push back the on the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act with the Real Estate Revitalization Act of 2010 (H.R. 4539). This Act aimed to redefine FIRPTA by eliminating interest tax on the sale of U.S. real estate by foreign investors.

"Although this bill was never enacted, the House of Representatives, later that same year, was able to successfully pass a slight modification to FIRPTA with the passage of the Real Estate Jobs and Investment Act(H.R. 5901) during the 111th Congress.

"The United States Congressional Budget Office prepared a financial analysis of the budgetary effects of H.R. 5901 on the U.S. …The CBO analyzed the Act and in doing so determined that the national deficit would benefit from the changes to FIRPTA as proposed by the House of Representatives. The CBO concluded that The Real Estate Jobs and Investment Act of 2010 would reduce the federal deficit by $143 million from 2010 to 2015 by stimulating the economy with the increase of foreign investment in public REITs."

This is a small but statistically significant finding, DiBitetto says. "Even a change as small as a 5% increase in a REIT investment can have a sizeable impact on the US economy."