Please wait as we prepare your PDF file ....

Mission Chronicle Blog

Search Blog

our goal is to help you stay informed by providing timely and interesting articles.

International home sales waver while Chinese buyer interest surges

07/06/2016

Download PDF

Although Americans are notoriously insular, the economic upheaval overseas is going to influence the U.S. housing market in one way or another. Between China’s economy and the British exit from the European Union (aka Brexit), there’s a lot happening that will have an effect here.

The National Association of Realtors released its annual 2016 Profile Of International Activity In U.S. Residential Real Estate — which covers U.S. residential real estate sales to international clients between April 2015 and March 2016 — and there were a few surprises.

Namely, overall residential property sales to foreign buyers were down 1.3 percent, or by about $10 billion, for a total of $102.6 billion. (This is compared to $103.9 billion reported in last year’s survey.)

In addition, non-resident foreign buyers bought the lowest dollar volume since 2013. NAR is attributing this to home price increases and weaker foreign currencies against the dollar.

However, Chinese buyers continue to invest the most heavily in U.S. real estate. This trend keeps heating up — with the total dollar sales figure from buyers in China exceeding that of the next four countries combined.

“Weaker economic growth throughout the world, devalued foreign currencies and financial market turbulence combined to present significant challenges for foreign buyers over the past year,” said NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “While these obstacles led to a cool down in sales from non-resident foreign buyers, the purchases by recent immigrant foreigners rose, resulting in the overall sales dollar volume still being the second highest since 2009.

“Foreigners – especially those from China – continue to see the U.S. as a solid investment opportunity and an attractive place to visit and live.”

NAR Infographic - 2016 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate

Chinese buyers continue to invest the most heavily in U.S. real estate.

Click To Tweet

Furthermore, today the value of the British pound hit a 30-year low point, exceeding those losses recorded immediately after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

British Pound Tumbles After Brexit | Graphiq

The graph above visualizes the pound’s wavering value since Brexit.

Hot spots: Which states do foreign buyers prefer?

The top five states for international activity (accounting for more than half of foreign buyer purchases) included:

Florida (22 percent) California (15 percent) Texas (10 percent) Arizona (4 percent) New York (4 percent)

Moreover, fewer international buyers are using Realtors, but more Realtors are seeing interest in international property. In fact, 14 percent of Realtor respondents indicated that they had a client looking to buy internationally, up from 6 percent from last year.

And what about the value of these homes sold in the U.S. to foreign buyers? The median price stood at $245,331 in this year’s survey — the first time that NAR collected this data from U.S. sellers.

“Both the increase in U.S. home prices — up 6 percent in March 2016 compared to one year ago — and the depreciating value of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar made buying property a lot pricier last year,” Yun added. “Led by Venezuela (45 percent) and Brazil (24 percent), at least eight countries, including China and Canada, saw double-digit percent increases in the median sales price of a U.S. existing-home when measured in their country’s currency.”

“Although China’s currency modestly weakened versus the U.S. dollar in the past year, it’s much stronger than it was five to 10 years ago, thereby making U.S. properties still appear reasonably affordable over a longer time span.”

Email Caroline Feeney.

Like me on Facebook! | Follow me on Twitter!

Source: click here

Read More

INSPIRED, INTELLIGENT, INSIGHTFULL

STAY INFORMED WITH TIMELY AND INTERESTING ARTICLES FROM OUR BLOG, MISSION CHRONICLE. OUR ASPIRATION IS TO PROVIDE REALTORS AND OTHER REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS WITH EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCES AND SHARE OUR KNOWLEDGE TO PROPEL YOU TO YOUR GOALS.

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter July 24, 2023

    Mortgage rates continued to press downward last week after the previous week's CPI data pointed to e...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Feb 20, 2023

    Despite the recent downward trend in mortgage rates and hopes that the Fed was nearing the end of it...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Feb 6, 2023

    The Federal Reserve meeting ended as market participants expected, with a quarter-point increase and...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 26, 2022

    Mortgage rates held relatively steady last week as most economic news came in better than expected.C...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 12, 2022

    Rates managed to move slightly downward last week as recession fears grew amid hopes that the Fedis ...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 5th 2022

    Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 5th 2022. Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsiveIdeal for: Leasing a...

  • Inman Review: Tenants and leasing teams get better connected with RentTango

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • Tech Review: Smart Alto puts people first in its innovative lead qualification solution

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • Refreshed and nurture-savvy, Market Leader’s CRM deserves your attention

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • The top 4 tips to improve your negotiation skills

    In today’s luxury real estate market, strong negotiation skills are an asset—you might even say ...

March 2024
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

  • Polls

    What information you are looking for?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...
  • Last month Results

    How Is My Site?

    • Good (100%, 3 Votes)
    • Excellent (0%, 0 Votes)
    • Bad (0%, 0 Votes)
    • Can Be Improved (0%, 0 Votes)
    • No Comments (0%, 0 Votes)

    Total Voters: 3

    Vote

    Loading ... Loading ...