The Chinese (and other foreign investors) stocking up on American farmland are not stopping with the rural areas. A large number of well-heeled buyers are taking advantage of the high mortgage rates discouraging Americans and paying cash for residential homes in the US as well.
Fox Business is reporting that, between April 2024 and April 25, Chinese buyers had purchased $13.7 billion worth of existing homes in this country, an increase of 83 percent over the previous year.
The foreign, cash-flush buyers are concentrating on high-dollar real estate in states like California, where 36 percent of them have purchased homes. Nationwide, the properties carry an average price tag of $1.2 million. Within the year just reported, foreign buyers scooped up about 78,100 properties, more than half of them paid for with cash. Meanwhile, the average price per house continues to increase, having gone up 60 percent since 2019, while interest rates stay high, keeping domestic buyers out of the market.
America First, anyone?
For more, see Fox Business.