U.S. housing buyers by country of origin 2022 | Statista (2024)

FAQs

Who is the largest foreign buyer of US real estate? ›

China, Canada, India, Mexico and Brazil were the top five countries of origin for foreign U.S. buyers. Chinese buyers had the highest average purchase price, at “just over $1 million,” per the report, with 31% of purchasers from China opting for properties in California.

International buyers purchased $59 billion worth of U.S. residential properties from April 2021–March 2022, up 8.5% from the previous year and breaking a three-year streak of declines. The 98,600 existing homes sold – the lowest since NAR tracking began in 2009 – were down 7.9% from the previous year.

Foreign buyers living in the U.S. made up the lion's share of investors, buying $34.1 billion worth of U.S. homes — or 58% of the volume.

The top-five foreign buyers of U.S. real estate include Canada, China, Mexico, India, and the United Kingdom. Together, these five countries account for 29% of the $54.4 billion dollar volume of foreign buyer residential purchases from April 2020 to March 2021.

Chinese investors are among the top foreign purchasers of residential real estate, along with Canadians, according to the National Association of Realtors. Other states have had concerns over foreign ownership of land and have made efforts to regulate it.

China owns roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. agricultural land, according to a 2021 report from the Department of Agriculture.

Chinese buyers comprise one of the largest groups of foreign buyers of residential property in the United States. Historically, between 20,000 and 40,000 residential properties were bought by Chinese nationals, but in 2022, both the sales volume and percentage of all foreign-bought properties declined.

Many Chinese and Hong Kong nationals may find this an intriguing option because of the relatively cheaper housing prices in the United States (compared to metro areas of other western countries) and the availability of coastal area properties in many country locations.

11. From April 2020 to March 2021, the most number of foreign purchasers for U.S. residential real estate came from Canada, Mexico, China, India, and the United Kingdom (29% of $54.4 billion worth of foreign buyer purchases).

How have Chinese and Canadian investments developed over time? The share of Chinese investors in the U.S. real estate market remained somewhat constant until 2018 when it hovered at around 15 percent, before dropping to 11 percent in 2019 and then six percent in 2021.

What generation owns the most homes in the US? ›

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2023) – The share of baby boomers has surpassed millennials and now makes up the largest generation of home buyers, according to the latest study from the National Association of Realtors®.

If the Federal Reserve's holdings are excluded, foreigners own nearly 60 percent of outstanding marketable treasuries. Foreigners own less-significant portions of other asset markets. Their holdings of equities, though large in dollar terms, are small relative to the size of the equity market.

The US is a renter-friendly country with a high demand for rental properties. Therefore, you can easily find tenants for your investment property in the USA and generate good rental income. Rental yield is defined as the gross annual rental income as a percentage of the property purchase price.

Chinese buyers spent the most on U.S. properties, dropping $6.1 billion in total. They were followed by Canadians, who collectively paid $5.5 billion. Buyers from India followed at $3.6 billion. Then came Mexican buyers, at $2.9 billion, and Brazilians, at $1.6 billion.

The rights to purchase and own property in the United States is the same for a foreign investor as they are for a United States citizen. These tax benefits are the major factor luring more and more investments by foreign investors in the US real estate market.

Because China is a socialist country, all land is either subject to government ownership or collective ownership. In principle, municipal land is subject to government ownership and land outside cities is subject to collective ownership. However, one can obtain the right to use the land.

California is the epicenter of Chinese residential investment in the U.S., with 34% of purchases in the state. Other significant hubs are New York, New Jersey, Florida and Texas. In Irvine, population 280,000, “there are 65,000 houses... and 21,000 of them are owned by Chinese.” Lu of Fidelity National says.

There are two major methods for foreigners to inherit the estate located in China, namely notarization and litigation. In the event that there is no dispute between successors over the estate, you may bring relevant documents for succession notarization at a Chinese notary public.

In play now in China, where around 70% of household wealth is in property, this phenomenon is weighing on the post-pandemic recovery of household consumption, which Chinese policymakers have vowed to make a more prominent driver of economic growth.

Hawaii's numbers look even more modest when you consider that the large majority of the capital invested in the state over the past 17 years came from a single company: China Oceanwide, which since 2015 has acquired $569 million of real estate in West Oahu, including 26 acres of oceanfront land for a new Atlantis ...

What American companies has China bought? ›

Today China is a country of homeowners with more than 90% of households owning homes (87% in urban and 96% in rural China) (Clark, Huang, & Yi, 2019). At the same time, more than 20% Chinese households own multiple homes, higher than many developed nations (Huang et al., 2020).

Now those skyscrapers are evidence of something very different: China's real estate market in crisis, reeling after years of overbuilding.

In the last 10 years, Chinese investors have bought US$188.6 billion worth of property in the US – more than a fifth of total foreign investment.

China's real estate market has slumped in the last two years after Beijing cracked down on developers' high reliance on debt for growth. BEIJING — China needs to do more in order to fix its real estate problems, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.

The slower pace of home sales meant less cash flow for China's highly leveraged real estate developers, like Evergrande, setting the stage for credit defaults across the real estate and construction sectors. As the surviving developers were forced to deleverage, they halted construction on unfinished projects.

The Chinese believe a home should be a balanced environment where the position of doors, windows and furnishings help the good energy to flow through unencumbered. Light and airy homes with little clutter appeal to most people so Feng Shui practices are often just good common sense.

In 2020, even as the pandemic was already underway, Chinese buyers still purchased over 18,000 homes in the U.S., about half the number from the 2017-2018 highs. But in 2021, Chinese home purchases were down to about 6,000—a two-thirds drop in just one year—for a total investment of under $5 billion.

Foreign buyers purchase 1.6% of all homes sold in the U.S., according to the report. In California, that number has hovered around 3% in recent years.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest report on foreign ownership of American land, from 2021, 146 Chinese investors held 383,935 acres—nearly double the 193,700 acres that comprise New York City.

Are Chinese buying up real estate? ›

Chinese investors purchased nearly a third (31%) of their homes in California. This is a slight disparity from international buyers as a whole, who found the following states the most attractive (in order): Florida, California, Texas, Arizona, New York and North Carolina.

According to data reported by the PEW Trust and originally gathered by CoreLogic, as of 2022, investment companies own about one fourth of all single-family homes. Last year, investor purchases accounted for 22% of American homes sold. This is significantly down from the 80% number in 2020-2021, why is this?

Baby boomers have the highest household net worth of any US generation. Defined by the Federal Reserve as being born between 1946 and 1964 (currently in the ages between 59 and 77), baby boomers are in often in the sunset of their career or early into retirement.

The Greatest Generation commonly refers to those Americans who were born in the 1900s through the 1920s. The Greatest Generation members all lived through the Great Depression and many of them fought in World War II. These individuals have often been described as driven, patriotic, and team-players.

The most populous city in the U.S., New York is the top boomer location, boasting the largest population of baby boomers.

Real estate, for either personal use or rental purposes, is the most highly valued asset owned by households.

Assets at financial institutions, such as checking and savings accounts, and vehicle equity were the most common assets. In 2020, 95.6 percent of households had assets at financial institutions, and 82.2 percent owned vehicles.

Chinese investors have been lining up to buy properties in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Thailand, and Australia, majorly because these five countries have been hot markets for them.

Upon sale of real property, the foreign investor will be subject to FIRPTA withholding tax at the rate of 15% of the total sale price (not on gain realized from sale) subject to certain exceptions. FIRPTA tax must be withheld from the purchase price by the buyer and is treated as an advance payment of U.S. taxes.

What percent of the US stock market is owned by foreign investors? ›

Our new analysis shows that foreign investors owned about 40 percent of US corporate equity in 2019, up substantially over the last few decades.

Who Is the Largest Landowner in the U.S.? The largest landowners in the United States are the Emmerson family, with 2,330,000 acres of land.

It is entirely possible to purchase a home as a non-U.S. citizen — whether you're a foreign national or a permanent or a temporary resident. There are no limitations on the type of property that can be purchased or how the property is used.

Donald Bren. Donald Bren is one of the greatest real estate investors in American history. He is currently the wealthiest real estate investor in the country and has a net worth of $15.3 billion.

Baby Boomers Overtake Millennials as Largest Generation of Home Buyers. Local broker marketplaces ensure equity and transparency.

According to data reported by the PEW Trust and originally gathered by CoreLogic, as of 2022, investment companies own about one fourth of all single-family homes. Last year, investor purchases accounted for 22% of American homes sold. This is significantly down from the 80% number in 2020-2021, why is this?

At the top, Orange County, California-based Donald Bren remains the wealthiest real estate billionaire in the country with an estimated $16.2 billion net worth, nearly $1 billion higher than last year.

Donald Bren, chair of Southern California-based Irvine Company, is the wealthiest American real estate titan, just cracking the top 100 (#97) with a $17.4 billion fortune, an increase of $1.2 billion from last year.

Leading apartment owners in the U.S. 2022, by units owned

Starwood Capital Group, which was the largest owner in 2022 with 115,000 units, is a private investment firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.

Millennials have made up the largest share of home purchase mortgage applications for the last six years.

Who sold the most houses in the US? ›

Caballero has been the top-ranked real estate agent by REAL Trends for both total sales and number of transactions since 2013. Between 2004 and 2019, Caballero sold 36,827 new homes totaling $13.141 billion in volume.

Anyone can buy property in the US, regardless of their citizenship.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has no business purchasing land near military bases or for agricultural purposes – or for any other reason,” said Rep. Bill Johnson. “It is a critical matter of national security that we prevent the CCP from buying large swaths of American land.