The WSJ reports,"Chinese customers purchased $22 billion in housing for the 12-month period ended in March, or around 24% of all foreign sales by dollar volume, up from $12.8 billion, or 19%, during the year-earlier period.
Total international property purchases stood at $92.2 billion, according to the NAR's estimates, up from $68.2 billion the year before and $82.5 billion for the year ending in March 2012. The tally includes purchases by recent immigrants, and accounted for around 7% of all sales of previously owned homes during that period.
European and Latin American buyers have helped push prices of South Florida condos to record highs, while Asian buyers have focused primarily on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Foreign buyers of all stripes have sent prices of new Manhattan developments to astronomical levels.
For many foreigners, American housing markets are both a bargain and a haven amid concerns over unsustainable asset values abroad. Chinese buyers in particular "want to diversify because the housing market over there is just way too hot," said William Yu, an economist at the University of California Los Angeles.
Favorable exchange rates have also boosted many foreigners' potential purchasing power. Given the relative weakness of the dollar, "after our housing downturn, homes became even more valuable if you were shopping with the yuan," said John Burns, chief executive of a home builder consulting firm in Irvine, Calif.
Chinese buyers have been particularly active in Irvine and Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley, which is home to several long-established Asian immigrant communities. Commercial air traffic between Los Angeles and mainland China is up more than 400% since 2003, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc.
Political instability is also a source of concern to wealthy Chinese, said Mr. Yu. "There's no trust in the rule of law," he said. "If they're making money, smart people are going to try to keep the money here in case something happens in China."
Canadians accounted for 19% of property buyers last year, down from 23% in the year-earlier period. Chinese accounted for 16% of buyers, up from 12%".
