CNBC, through its real estate correspondent Diana Olick, reports that Chinese buyers are putting their cash into U.S. properties. The National Association of Realtors confirms that Chinese are now the top foreign buyers of domestic properties, while the real estate sales and analytics company, RealtyTrac, reports that nearly half of these buyers are paying cash.
RISMedia shares the information that in a joint study made by RealtyTrac and Ethnic Technologies, results show that forty-six percent of Mandarin Chinese -speaking buyers who paid cash for their U.S. homes for the past 17 months, the period ending in May 2015, there was an increase of 229 percent from the fourteen percent share paying all cash in 2005 - by far the largest increase from all language groups.
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, says, "Cash buyers across the board are playing a much bigger role in the housing market now than they were 10 years ago, and that is particularly true for Chinese Mandarin-speaking cash buyers, who are more likely to be foreign nationals. Foreign cash buyers have helped to accelerate U.S. home price appreciation over the past few years given that these buyers are often not as constrained by income as local, traditionally financed buyers."
The instability that has lately plagued China's economy and stock market has prompted buyers to shift to the U.S. market. Just recently, a Virginia-based real estate agency, Long & Foster started working with Juwai, a China-based real estate listing site.
"We're seeing demand from Chinese buyers with children of all ages - some as young as 1 year old - and they're relying on our team for insight into the local areas and their educational offerings, from elementary to university level. Access to quality education is one of the top priorities for Chinese buyers, and from Philadelphia to Richmond, our market areas offer some of the best school districts and universities," explained the President of Long & Foster's corporate real estate services, Pandra Richie.
Olick also reported that for the past 12 months, ending in March 2015, Asian buyers compose 35 percent of all international purchases of U.S., where they have invested more than $28 billion. Moreover, it has been reported that these buyers have been very active in high-end markets, especially in California and New York City.
