Foreign investors are buying less single-family real estate in the United States, decreasing 36 percent to below $78 billion in the 12 months that ended March 2019, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Other highlights include:
- 183,100 — Number of foreign buyer existing-home purchases, which is 3 percent of existing-home sales (a 31 percent decrease from 266,800 during the 12-month period from April 2017 to March 2018)
- 60 percent — Foreign buyers who resided in the United States as recent immigrants or visa holders
-  $280,600 — Foreign buyer median purchase price (compared with $259,600 for all U.S. existing-homes sold)
Florida attracted about a fifth of the foreign capital. California has remained popular with 12 percent of foreign purchases. Texas followed at 10 percent, with Arizona at 5 percent and New Jersey at 4 percent.
Chinese buyers are the top foreign buyers for U.S. single-family real estate, the seventh consecutive year, and totaling $13.4 billion. However, it dropped 56 percent from the previous year. Canadians buyers were the second most active, investing $8 billion on existing homes, purchasing nearly the same number of homes as the Chinese.
The NAR report is based on a survey of 11,812 Realtors conducted from April 5 through May 3. It measured sales to foreign buyers who live in the United States, such as recent immigrants, and abroad from April 2018 through March 2019.
