Foreigners buy $153bn in US residential property in 49% jump

by   CIJ USA
2017-07-19   17:22
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According to a new report by The National Association of Realtors foreign investment in US residential real estate has reached a new high. Foreign buyers and recent immigrants bought $153 billion of residential property, a 49 percent increase jump from the previous year. Foreign investors paid an average of $302,290 per home site, a uptick of 9 percent increase from the median sales price last year. Ten percent of international buyers paid over $1 million, with 44 percent of those transactions being all cash purchases.

Chinese investors purchased $31.7 billion in 2017, up from $27.3 billion last year and $28.6 billion in 2015. Buyers from China also bought the most residential units for the third consecutive year. Rounding out the top five countries in terms of sales dollar volume after China are Canada, the UK, Mexico and India. Tighe top three states foreigners bought property are Florida (22%), California (12%) and Texas (12%) with New Jersey and Arizona round out the top five. Florida was the most popular state for Canadian buyers, while California was the favorite among Chinese and Mexicans preferred to purchase property in Texas.

“The political and economic uncertainty both here and abroad did not deter foreigners from exponentially ramping up their purchases of U.S. property over the past year,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. Yun also stated even with relatively strong dollar, foreigners are willing to pay a bit more to invest in the US