New figures show that fewer overseas investors are purchasing homes in the United States.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), between April 2018 and March 2019, 183,100 overseas investors purchased a property in the United States, at an average price of $426,100. This totalled US$77.9 billion.
However, a year earlier overseas investors purchased 266,800 properties at an average of US$454,600 each. This added US$121 billion to the US economy.
Slower economic growth abroad, tighter capital controls in China, a stronger US Dollar and a low inventory of homes for sale were all given by the NAR as reasons for less interest from overseas investors.
Florida remains the main focal point of overseas purchasers, attracting 20 per cent of all foreign buyers. California was the second most popular state (12 per cent), with Texas third (10 per cent).
For the seventh consecutive year, buyers from China pumped the most money into the American residential property market with their dollar volume of purchases totalling $13.4 billion. However, even this figure was 56 per cent down on the previous 12-month period when purchases came to US$30.4 billion.
Canadians were the next largest source of overseas investors in the US, spending US$8 billion, while Indian investors were third (6.9 billion).
The amount spent by foreigners on US property between March 2018 and April 2019 was the seventh lowest total in the past ten years.
The highest spending occurred in 2017, when foreign purchasers spent a total of US$153 billion on properties in the States.
Article published 9th August 2019