Another Hit to Demand in the Housing Market: Purchases by Foreign Buyers Have Plunged by 76% from Peak

Purchases by Chinese, Canadian, and British buyers have collapsed. Foreign buyers matter in some key submarkets.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Home purchases in the US by foreign buyers – both nonresident foreign buyers and foreign buyers who reside in the US – fell again in the 12-month period through March and have collapsed by 76% from the peak in 2017, to just 67,100 homes (red line in the chart). During the peak year through March 2017, foreign buyers had purchased 284,500 homes.

Purchases by foreign buyers who lived in the US plunged by 77% from the peak to 37,600 homes (dotted blue line). Purchases by foreign buyers who lived overseas plunged by 75% from the peak to 29,500 (double green line).

The record low in the annual reports on foreign buyers by the National Association of Realtors, going back to 2009, occurred in 2024.

Foreign buyers are concentrated in a subset of markets in the US, where they can play a substantial role.

Buyers from Canada were #1 with 10,700 home purchases in the 12-month period, though these purchases have collapsed by 84% from 69,100 homes at the peak in the data in 2010. And they were down by 46% from 2019.

Canadians spent an average of $486,000 per home.

The report does not provide data on foreign owners who sold their US homes. But from the sporadic reporting on sometimes desperate sales last year and this year by Canadians who’d had it up to here with the US, one might venture to guess that Canadians turned into net-sellers.

Buyers from Mexico purchased 9,400 homes in the 12-month period through March, down by 69% from the peak of 30,100 homes in 2010 and down from 15,900 homes in 2019. They spent an average of $532,000 per home.

Buyers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan purchased 7,400 homes in the 12-month period, largely concentrated in some areas of California.

Purchases have collapsed by 82% from the peak of 40,600 in 2017. Back in 2010, when Canadian and Mexican purchases peaked, Chinese buyers were still climbing the ladder.

But they spent on average $1.03 million per home, given the sky-high home prices in their favored California markets. And so in dollar-terms, at $7.6 billion, they were #1 in the 12-month period.

All major US brokerage firms actively pitch US homes to buyers in China. Compass promotes US homes in China through via its Mandarin website Compass China and Mandarin-speaking agents in the US. Compass acquired Anywhere Advisors, the parent of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, and Sotheby’s, that also pitch US homes in China. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices entered China at the peak in 2017 via a marketing agreement with Juwai.com, to pitch US homes to buyers in China. Back in 2017 and 2018, the sky was still the limit.

Buyers from India purchased 6,000 homes, down by 65% from the peak of 17,300 homes in 2015 and from 9,700 homes in 2019.

They spent an average of $617,000 per home as the buying is concentrated in expensive tech areas of the US.

Buyers from the UK purchased 2,700 homes, spending on average $444,000 per home. Their purchases have collapsed by 90% from the peak of 27,100 homes in 2010.

By market, the biggest three states accounted for about 50% of the foreign purchases: Florida remained #1 with a share of 20% of foreign purchases. California was #2, with a share of 19% of foreign purchases. And Texas was #3 with a share of 12% of foreign purchases.

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  96 comments for “Another Hit to Demand in the Housing Market: Purchases by Foreign Buyers Have Plunged by 76% from Peak

  1. Delusional about inflation says:

    Once the moratorium to buy Canadians homes in Vancouver Toronto other big Canadian cities is over next year. People from China will buy fewer homes in the USA

    • Wolf Richter says:

      Their purchases already collapsed. So they’ll go to zero? Prolly not

    • JamesN says:

      Not likely going to happen. That’s the last thing the Federal Liberals and Socialist BC government need – it works diametrically opposite to their B.S. goal of affordable housing.

      There should be no schemes or bailouts for developers ever.

  2. MS says:

    This is surprising news to me.

    If you want America for Americans, this is a good thing.

    The slump has been going on for nearly 10, regardless of Biden or Trump in the White House.

    • BenW says:

      I agree. With the looming AI / job crisis, it’s time to sunset H1B & L1B visas. We might want to get out ahead of this.

    • a says:

      And which Americans are the ones benefitting the most in this economy?

      Those inside or outdide the moat that has been created?

      • BenW says:

        It helps lower demand which will eventually lead to further price declines. You’re either going to get enough price declines for WAY HIGHER FOR LONGER than anyone really wants or through a recession. Continued low demand is part of the first, less economic devastation, option.

  3. Jason says:

    Looks similar to the overall trend, so I don’t expect that there is no special impact here.

  4. Phoenix_Ikki says:

    haha I am sure we will get someone pointing out not applicable to Irvine, even though the decline can be seen in California..

  5. Sam says:

    Bay Area homes are unfordable to people working here, even in tech. Many homes held by faceless Chinese nationals, from whom you rent via middlemen.

    • Broski says:

      Yes, Chinese are probably the majority buyers. But as Wolf mentioned, other nationalities also buy in significant numbers. Regardless of nationality, it sucks that foreigner purchases are allowed to make housing affordability worse.

      Of course, there are far bigger problems which affect affordability. E.g. ZIRP, Institutional buyers, Airbnbs, Regulations etc. But, lets not make it worse by letting foreign buyers have a free for all here.

      • William McDonald says:

        There is something to be said about reciprocity. Americans can and do buy far more homes in foreign countries than foreigners buy homes in the US.

        • Ron says:

          ????? I thought most countries you can buy condos/buildings but not land….

        • William McDonald says:

          Definitely not most. There are some countries that have these restrictions to some degree (Mexico, Thailand, Philippines) and are fairly well known by Americans as it’s places they often like to retire, and others where no person really owns the land (China), but most countries allow land ownership.

          Kinda a moot point anyway as America is the only major country where most live in single family family homes with ownership of the land under them–very much the exception to the rule in the rest of the world.

    • Matt B says:

      I hope that the AI bubble’s detonation will be what finally fixes the bay area housing market – but everyone’s been waiting for that for 20 years. Then all the bay area refugees we have here in Sacramento can go back there and obliterate our housing market as well, and then we’ll finally have some leverage over the landlords. I can dream!

      Following that, we’ll have to work on strengthening our reputation as a hot, arid cow-town on a savannah that nobody associates with California. As I write this, it’s 97F and I have a vulture circling me. You don’t want to be here!

      • old ghost says:

        I also look forward to watching the AI bubble collapse here in Wisconsin.

        At this time it seems like they are eyeing every 2 horse town in the area to build a 500 acre data center. Rents and SFH are thru the roof.

        We do have plenty of water (floods here every year now). But where O where will they find the electricity to run a data center ?

        • William McDonald says:

          “But where O where will they find the electricity to run a data center ?”

          The same place we have and continue to “find electricity”–via converting energy from one form to another using industrial processes. Electricity use in the US has more than doubled in the last half century (12X globally) with little issue. The US in particular is awash with natural/renewable power opportunities, viable sites for nuclear generation, surplus natural gas, and coal if we needed to. You really think the most powerful nation on earth can’t figure out non-distributed power generation?

        • DJ says:

          South Korean nuclear reactors. That’s what’s planned in texas.

  6. Bobby Dale says:

    My suspicion about the Canadian market is a 10% anxiety about politics, 30% the collapse in prices of the Canadian residential market and 60% the value of the Canadian Dollar, which peaked vs the USD at the same time that Canadian purchases in the US did.

    • Danno says:

      As a dual citizen now living back in my birth country Canada, I fully agree.

      It will be interesting to see what happens when the current President is through and the exchange rate drops to 1.25 area.

      • Paul S says:

        I would say it is more than a 10% concern about the current state of ….if you want to call it politics. I have two nephews and one niece in the US. They have all started the process of obtaining their Canadian citizenship due to their lineage. They are all professionals and together have 6 children. They figure it will take 6 more months to complete. The reasons they cite are also medical coverage, and the cost of post secondary education. This summer two of the kids came to visit. One has already toured UBC and has researched his options. He is in grade 11 and will apply when his citizenship comes through.

        BBC Headline from May: Thousands of ‘lost Canadians’ have applied for dual citizenship – is Canada ready?

        Total Backlog: Roughly 50,900 pending applications for proof of Canadian citizenship are currently in the queue with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).Recent Volume: In a single multi-week surge following the rollout of the updated descent rules, Canada received over 12,000 citizenship-by-descent applications

        and: Eligible Population: An estimated 3 million Americans in regions like New England alone may qualify under the expanded rules due to historical migration patterns.

        • William McDonald says:

          “The reasons they cite are also medical coverage, and the cost of post secondary education.”

          If they are professionals (?) and in reasonable health, I am confident the lower salaries in Canada will far offset any outlays on education, especially if considering the value of the degree (reputation and network).

        • James Nineteen Eleven says:

          I have been kicked out of Leafland permanently,was riding with a motorcycle group and hanging in Montreal,was at the Le Brique club(rock place for most part)got into a fight with off duty Leaf cops,fight kept on with on duty cops.

          No charges brought as would have looked bad for cops as off duty ones started….,plus,until swarmed we certainly had th e upper hand…..,good times!

          Sent out of country and told never welcome/come back which was just fine as things got a bit out of hand in Montreal in the 90’s with bike groups and all.

    • MitchV says:

      Since we just making shit up here, I will put my 2 cents in as an Eastern Canadian of the right age (retired) and income to be a snow bird. My parents generation loved the idea of heading down to buy property in Florida to escape in winter, and many did. Now the story I hear from almost everyone is that they will not buy or even visit Florida (or any other state) until the political situation has changed. These people are not hampered by the drop in real estate in Canada. For the snowbird cohort, those places were paid off many years ago, and the exchange rate has dropped but not enough to make much of a difference.

      • OBC says:

        Hi Mitch,

        As I read your comments I was reminded of Jack Nicholson’s observation about women, reason and emotion in the movie ‘As Good as It Gets’.

        So let strip out the emotion and rationally examine the data Wolf shared. What are the implications for home prices in the US as a result of the decreased number of foreign buyers? What percentage of overall home sales are to foreign buyers?

        Your post did remind me that letting emotional considerations affect my investment decisions has not been a positive for my net worth.

        Good luck and best regards to all.

        • ApartmentInvestor says:

          @OBC great post, part of the reason I love Wolf’s work is that he is great at “stripping out the emotion”. I was wondering what @MitchV means when he writes “until the political situation has changed”. As most of the media has gone partisan the only thing that changes are the media outlets calling the president crazy. When I push people to tell me what specifically has changed in FL since the president changes I usually get a blank stare…

        • Wolf Richter says:

          “What percentage of overall home sales are to foreign buyers?”

          In the key markets where foreign buyers are concentrated, they have a substantial impact.

        • MountainTime says:

          The comment was by a fictional character and was an insulting one-liner, not Jack Nicholson’s personal observation. But many here probably internalized it as a personal belief.

          Plenty of women are buying homes alone, not wasting time like the young lost male population living at home and plotting to shoot up a mall or beat up immigrants who buy homes. Keep your “observations” to yourself.

      • CSH says:

        Good luck trying to wait it out – FL is unlikely to be a left-leaning state soon, given differential migration, so will not be congenial to Canadians. Anecdotally, a friend of mine recently moved there from the NYC metro and loves it. The only downside he says is that everything grows too fast (more gardening) and HOAs are more hardcore about enforcing property standards. But this at least means the neighborhoods look nice.

        • VintageVNvet says:

          Not so fast CSH:
          Based on the latest data: ” The latest figures from the Florida Division of Elections, reflecting the July 20 book closing, show Republicans with 5.6 million active registered voters, compared to 4.06 million Democrats. Another 3.32 million voters are registered with no party affiliation, while roughly 496,000 are affiliated with a minor political party. ”
          Registered Republicans are far from a majority in FL, as opposed to there being more of them than Democrats.
          And FL has done in the past, and likely will do once again, some rather large shifts in voting patterns.
          Also keep in mind that Morgan has begun the process of forming a new party, and besides being the largest injury attorney, he has a lot of friends and might quickly attract a lot of the NPA folx from both directions from center.
          Especially if both ”parties” continue with the very clear divisive tactics of recent years.

        • Cory R says:

          I used to live in Florida. I met a lot of Canadian snowbirds. I sold my home to a Canadian. Nothing in the state has changed how those folks are treated.

      • AmericaisforAmericans says:

        Then stay where you are. No one will miss you.

        • Danno says:

          Say that to the businesses on the border state, USA tourism, etc.

          See what they have to say…

          Your provincial world point of view is the issue.

          BTW, I’m a dual USA CANADIAN citizen. So no assumptions ok?

          Cheers from Canada. See in far more in 2029.

          Should change my name here to Humansforsanity.

        • Tom says:

          Agree. Now get them out of land ownership.

        • Donato says:

          Who will cook, clean, build, drive, etc. ? I hope you joking.

        • StPeteDave says:

          Exactly. No one will miss these loser Canadians. FL has the 14th largest economy in the world just as its own state and will pass up Canada in a few years. As a Floridian – I’m loving that foreign buyers are dropping off. Now DeSantis just needs to jack up their property taxes and reduce taxes for the people that actually live and work in FL

      • William McDonald says:

        A large factor is also that the relative difficulty and cost of long distance air travel has made RV snowboarding less attractive. Why go to the rio grande valley when you can easily and cheaply go to Thailand or Puerto Vallarta?

      • JamesN says:

        Too many Canadians are brainwashed by the CBC/CTV which are in the Federal Liberal pockets. CBC/CTV and all the other socialist rags/government mouthpieces have done more damage to Canadians, especially the boomers that believe that crap, it’s terrible.

        Canadians “sitting on the fence” waiting for things to change to buy ? Idiots I guess. FYI I’m Canadian. The anti-US sentiment sickens me.

      • Kernburn says:

        It’s so funny that Canadians think that any Democrat who might be able to get elected President would be much different than what we’ve got going on now. Just so precious. Never change, Canada

        • Canazei says:

          BS. And here I thought both-siderism was an American disease only.

          No Democratic politician has ever said or will say that Canada should be the 51st state, or treated them with the disdain and disrespect that the orange pedophile has spewed upon them. They had been one of our best partner countries forever, until this embarrassing bloated sausage came along.

          My Canadian friends here in the US are serious when they tell me how much their friends back home despise this demented clown, and aren’t too keen about the rest of our country currently either.

        • William McDonald says:

          Canada was nearly incorporated into the US many times in history–the Benedict Arnold/Aaron Burr counterfactual is one of the most interesting IMO. You should really consider how many Canadians would be very open to US annexation. The most relevant piece of data is migration patterns in recent decades and the use of Canada as a “stepping-stone” on the way to US immigration. Northern Mexico, especially Baja is similarly positioned.

      • mitchv says:

        For those who say that nothing has changed in FL for the snowbirds…. at one level I agree with you. I don’t think the local experience has changed. After all these are tourists visiting tourist areas. They are likely treated well. They look and sound a lot like the Americans who own most of the businesses in the tourist area. They spend money of housing, recreation, restaurants, local services, and pay local taxes but they don’t use up a lot of FL resources, like social services, education, healthcare. They are still travelling – but many are doing more travelling nearer to home or going to Mexico, the Caribbean, or South America or Europe or Asia instead. The experience in FL is not the reason.

  7. Brewski says:

    Can we get the stats on sales by foreign sellers?

    • Broski says:

      +1000 @Wolf please consider this request.

      • Wolf Richter says:

        I already kind of addressed this in the article with this paragraph:

        “The report does not provide data on foreign owners who sold their US homes. But from the sporadic reporting on sometimes desperate sales last year and this year by Canadians who’d had it up to here with the US, one might venture to guess that Canadians turned into net-sellers.

        NAR does not track sales by foreign owners. I have not heard of anyone who tracks sales by foreign owners.

        • William McDonald says:

          It also makes the interpretation more difficult. Many foreign buyers likely became citizens during the interim between purchase and sale–my wife did this for example.

        • Scott Fields says:

          I am just a working single family appraiser doing GSE mortage work. I do a lot of work in small towns along the Michigan Indiana border with a hugh amount of recent immigrants. There has been little for sale but flips for 10 years. There is one guy in the nearest town to me who owns 90 rental houses. They are still fully occupied. No one is leaving but the inventory for sale is slightly up,

  8. Andrew Giant says:

    This was all new information to me and I find it fascinating.

  9. Lorenzo says:

    I totally agree with a commenter in a previous column – real estate is ONLY a losing proposition moving forward. LOSING PROPOSITION. Between nosebleed valuations, ever-increasing taxes and insurance, plus insane maintenance and repair costs, real estate is no longer an investment. It will be return-free risk moving forward – a money loser.

    • Paul S says:

      Going to respectfully disagree. Lorenzo. You cannot make universal conclusions as RE is local. All RE is local. Certainly if you jump on any bandwagon in an overpriced market you lose out, but strategic long term purchases do well and I believe will continue to do so.

      The main problem is debt and taxes, imho. Insurance is a bitch but you can shop around. I have always lived in a low tax area and do not ‘do’ debt. I can’t sleep at night if I owe money. And our rural area has very low taxes. I noticed recently that a large forestry company has been recently developing 5 acre estate lots in our area using their RE division. These are private lands, not Crown forestry leases. This will now set the benchmark for the entire region. Now, the new arrivals might have paid too much, but that’s their problem being late arrivals. This forestry company has been around for a century in one way or another.

      A rental B&B might be pretty dumb these days, but if you could pick up a vacation cottage in a place not yet discovered…… you will do just fine. I think it just depends on where you are? Plus, long term geographic/demographic trends linked to climate change will be huge going forward.

      Would you say this if you had property near the Oregon coast?

      • William McDonald says:

        “All RE is local.”

        Kinda. Within a nation maybe, but political boundaries are incredibly important. The same condo is 20% the price in Tijuana than San Diego. I live in Luxembourg and equivalent housing is 6x the price here than in France, even when you can literally walk across a foot bridge in five minutes with no border controls.

    • William McDonald says:

      “It will be return-free risk moving forward”

      Well if there is no possibility of a return there can’t be risk.

    • Canazei says:

      Cycles and timing and the value of holding hard assets during the coming credit and debt and monetary crises this country is careening towards will show otherwise.

      That said, I’d wait awhile to pick up some real estate at revalued costs that are still coming. Have seen it happen at least 3 times in California already over the decades, and while the scope of it varies each time, it’s heading towards another. Then some sort of longer term recovery. Each state will be different though.

  10. Kracow says:

    Hah going to show my friends wife as she’s a Chinese national and bought in 2021 for 1.2M. Almost spot on.

    I’ll let her know that 1 home she stole from an American :)

    Doesn’t seem like they are actually that big of an influence overall like what 6% at the peak now down to 1% or less?

    • Wolf Richter says:

      1. If your friend’s wife is a US citizen or green card holder, she is a US Person, and NOT part of these figures. “Resident foreign buyers” are those on a visa, such as an H-1b visa, a tourist visa, a student visa, or similar.

      2. Foreign buyers have a substantial impact in the key markets where they’re concentrated

      • Kracow says:

        Thanks for the info neither of them are us citizens.

        Still looks like a low amount vs the total sold per year.

        • William McDonald says:

          They are really heavily concentrated in certain desirable school districts, for example. That’s the kind of local we are talking that can impact prices.

  11. Ol'B says:

    Anything to reduce demand and therefore prices of regular housing is good at this point. The Fed distorted the market for 15 years and it’s going to take as many for it to get back where it should be. Flat prices from 2022-2035+ so that regular people can buy houses with 30% of their income at regular mortgage rates of 7-9%.

  12. Gary says:

    There must be some way for the Treasury Department to “sanction” Chinese real estate so that the Chinese sell out.

  13. Donato says:

    Sincerely, which foreign guy would eagerly buy a home in US with this Administration, right now ?
    And especially if you are a resident you start making comparisons with your homeland or other countries.
    Numbers are exactly telling this.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      No one is complaining (other than sellers). But people massively complained about foreign buying driving up home prices in those markets where they bought, back in 2017/18. Even right here in the comments. So this trend helps in rebalancing the out-of-whack US housing market.

    • jon says:

      Thank God, Foreigners buying US homes is the last thing we need for housing affordability.

      I support banning outright foreign ownership of homes/land in USA like in many other countries.

      • William McDonald says:

        The tend shown in these charts is an increasing share of homeowners upside down in their homes and seemingly little buyer interest. At a certain point the number of homeowners in financial dire straights is larger than the population “priced out” of home ownership. Are foreign buyers welcome back at that point to inject capital into the market? If your interest is in helping Americans, that will be the logical move, right?

    • William McDonald says:

      Well it depends a lot on the administration in your home country doesn’t it? What Western or developed country is killing it right now? There are ignorant populist leaders in lots of places and nice-presenting leaders presiding over stagnant nations otherwise. Sometimes both (hello Meloni!). At the end of the day, most people simply don’t care about politics in their day-to-day lives, and instead care about material abundance, which the US continues to offer, and compared to most countries, the government mostly stays out of your way in day-to-day life.

  14. HUCK says:

    It seems that then entire world realizes that the US housing market is too expensive now.

    • OutWest says:

      Sure, whatever you say…

      • HUCK says:

        OutWest

        Yeah, I suppose what I said is pure conjecture. I am sure there are a variety of other reasons that so many fewer people are buying US homes including US citizens and foreigners.

        I have nothing to back up that crazy statement except the beer I was drinking.

    • OBC says:

      Hi Huck,

      Just curious but where is the data to support your contention? It seems to AI at least the ‘entire world realizes’ statement is not verifiable and in large meadure contradictory.

      Personally, in our household, if I need an opinion, my wife will tell me what it is? I hope you’re not in that category but I can’t help wondering who or what is programming yours.

      • Frank says:

        Huck is standing in an empty room all by himself – there is only one other thing in the room – a massive bull elephant. Housing price levels in the U.S. are that obviously overvalued. You can’t miss it unless you’re blind. I’m hoping that Huck agrees with my assessment of the situation. BTW: neither AI nor my wife had any say in this – just me and the elephant in the room.

      • HUCK says:

        OBC…

        I may be in that category that you described.

        Haha

  15. OBC says:

    Hmm. When AI contradicts some commentors statements, which would you believe?

    About commercial traffiv across the Blue Water Bridge linking Sarnia, ON and Port Huron, for instance, AI sez:

    Overall traffic between Sarnia and Port Huron is not falling. While passenger car and tourism traffic saw temporary dips due to economic and political friction, commercial truck volume at the Blue Water Bridge has surged so significantly that it recently surpassed the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit to become the busiest commercial trade corridor on the Canada-U.S. border.

    It’s the difference in opinions that make horse racing the sport of kings.

  16. JeffD says:

    So those are the purchase numbers. What about the liquidations? I asked AI about this for Canadians just last week, and it said the Canadians had indeed been liquidating. I may have got back some rough numbers, but I promptly forgot them.

  17. JeffD says:

    From Gemini AI:

    “Foreign Sellers Profile: NAR collects data on foreign clients selling U.S. properties, tracking client origin, property type, location, and key financial factors. Canadians consistently rank as one of the largest single groups of foreign sellers in the U.S.”

    This would imply that NAR has the numbers, but not that they have ever released them.

    • BS ini says:

      Foreign sellers at a relative peak since we talk about housing bubbles . Plus I think we also have seen a rise in the US dollar vs other currency with rates rising.
      The picture Wolf paints is for housing purchases. Who cares who the sellers are.
      I personally want individual freedoms in the USA not government controlled home sellers and buyers . Let me sell my home to the highest bidders regardless of the nationality. Foreign buyers are very localized with Florida still probably number 1. Great vacation and winter spot and like CA is geographically located for easy commutes near some large concentrations of pollution in the world .
      My home is always for sale to a high offer like the scam calls I get.
      Last one was so funny 😆. A foreign national calls and asked if my home was for sale. The answer is always yes . Bring the cashiers check to the title company and let me know the date then I will sign the paperwork after the cashiers check shows up as deposited .
      They want owner financing !!

  18. Reg Adams says:

    Its good that President Trump is deporting all the illegals because some of them are buying homes in the US, and if they are gone from here, prices will come down as well as crime.

    • voice of reason says:

      Yes but they got the money to buy the homes by wait for it working and providing production. Americans in many cases are not working and if they are they are not as productive at least in manual labor. So there will be a price to pay in inflation and also in supply constrant of that labor. IE hopefully you any of your loved ones dont need sombody to wipe your you know what due to ageing or health issues. Guess which crowd will be the 1st to cry…….POPCORN out.

  19. Waiono says:

    Missing from this discussion:

    The US has long been #1 in the world for money laundering through US real estate. “The U.S. real estate market is one of the largest in the world, valued at $47 trillion in 2023, according to Treasury.”

    “Its long-term stability makes it popular with criminals and unscrupulous foreign investors seeking to launder money and accumulate wealth. This in turn warps property prices and limits supply for legitimate buyers.

    “Many of these nefariously purchased properties sit vacant for years while some of our biggest cities suffer from housing crises,” the FinCEN official said.

    All-cash offers may be above market value and are generally favored by sellers for their speed, while investment vehicles, such as trusts and limited liability companies, obscure the identities of their real owners — a problem highlighted by multiple ICIJ investigations.

    In 2021, the Pandora Papers identified 206 U.S.-based trusts holding more than $1 billion in combined assets linked to 41 countries. Nearly 30 of those trusts were tied to individuals or companies accused of fraud, bribery or human rights abuses.

    More recently, Cyprus Confidential revealed that tenants of a New York apartment building were driven out by rising rents after its sale through a shell company to a financial fixer in Cyprus, since sanctioned for his business ties to Russian oligarchs.”

    • yippee says:

      manhattan island is the number one tax haven on planet. so many of our wall street clients……..owned prime locations and would never dream of becoming usa citizen. they don’t need to pay income taxes in usa. dwarfs places like cayman islands……..

      • William McDonald says:

        How exactly does property ownership shield one from taxes? Money laundering sure, but that “income” wasn’t being taxed anyway.

        • yippee says:

          A U.S. IRS Form W-8 is used by non-U.S. citizens, foreign individuals, and foreign businesses to certify their non-U.S. status. It helps lower or avoid a flat 30% tax withholding on income earned from U.S. sources, such as dividends, interest, or royalties.

        • Waiono says:

          Let’s not forget the card shuffling ownership of Delaware and Nevada corporations in the chain of ownership. These form a rabbit hole daisy chain that is way beyond the abilities of a County or State Tax clerk. By the time all is said and done, the real owner is getting a refund instead of paying cap gains.

        • William McDonald says:

          @yippee

          But that’s just a withholding exemption. One still has to ultimately pay any taxes owed. Depending on what the tax treaty is between the owner’s country and the US, ultimate taxes due could be both higher or lower. No?

    • yippee says:

      why would a russian national with millions living in brooklyn, want to be a us citizen. i’ve known so many that would LOL at the idea. same goes for many other millionaires and billionaires in nyc………

    • Canazei says:

      Money Laundering. Isn’t that the reason that Capital One gave for recently closing about 300 accounts of the guy in the White House? You might be on to something here.

      Or was that the one about selling early access to his tweets for getting corrupt insider info for stock trades? Or the son who got no-bid awards on multi-million dollar government contracts? Or the son-in-law who cozied up to the Arab dictators to fund his novice hedge fund with billions in exchange for ????

      Oh, never mind, I can’t keep them straight anymore. This NY real estate kingpin has really diversified since he took office!

      • Wolf Richter says:

        Canazei,

        Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank agreed to pay a record $3.1 billion in penalties in October 2024, of which $1.8 billion the US Department of Justice, and $1.3 billion to FinCEN of the US Treasury Department, after pleading guilty to criminal conspiracy charges for failing to properly prevent money laundering by drug cartels and other criminals.

  20. aj says:

    The decline start coincides perfectly with Trump’s election and the resulting increase in political instability. Surprise, surprise

    • Wolf Richter says:

      🤣 The decline started in 2018 and hit the record low in the 12-month period through March 2024, when Biden was Prez.

      At a minimum, learn how to read a chart?

  21. yippee says:

    miami and nyc are top 2 us cities with percentage of foreign owned properties. i bet if you add office property nyc comes out number one. so many foreign owned banks, retail and more………..so many hoods in outer boros have huge ownership percentage, too. mom and pops from china and india…….store fronts and row houses……..

    • Waiono says:

      The Patel Cartel
      A good Substack read

      Could be titled “Why are Americans so darn lazy?”

      • William McDonald says:

        “I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things.”

        “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it”

  22. Markus says:

    Buying a house is all about timing unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to afford the house I live in today if I had to buy right now, how will our kids afford to live in California?

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