International investment in U.S. residential properties remains a very big business, according to a new report issued by the National Association of Realtors, with the greatest investment coming out of three countries in the Western Hemisphere and two countries in Asia.
Between April of 2022 and March of this year total foreign buyers purchased 84,600 homes in the U.S. with a total dollar value of $53.3 billion.
While that figure is large, it is actually down by 9.6% over the previous year and represents the fewest total number of homes purchased with foreign dollars since the realtors group began tracking such transactions in 2009.
The report, 2023 Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate, reveals Canada, Mexico and Columbia as the countries with the largest number of U.S. property investments in the Western Hemisphere, while China and India rounded out the rest of the top five.
The number one state seeing the most foreign investment was Florida, representing 23% of all purchases; followed by California and Texas, at 12% each. Further down the list: Arizona, North Carolina, and Illinois, at 4% each.
A breakdown of the figures shows that foreign buyers actually living in the U.S. purchased upwards of $23.4 billion in property. Adds the report: “Foreign buyers who lived abroad purchased $29.9 billion worth of existing homes, up 20% from the 12 months prior.”
In a statement, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said the overall decline in foreign investment seen in the last year was most likely due to a combination of higher borrowing costs and lower home inventories.
Even so, Yun added that “recovering international travel following the end of the pandemic will bring more foreign transactions in coming months and years.”
As part of a trend that has been playing out now for around a decade, China was first in the dollar amount of U.S. home purchases at $13.6 billion, followed by Canada at $6.6 billion.
Purchases from Mexico represented $4.2 billion, with India close behind at $3.4 billion. The top five countries list was rounded out with Columbia at just under $1 billion.
By Garry Boulard
