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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChina Bought $22 Billion Worth Of US Homes Over A Recent 12-Month Span
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-all-cash-buyers-in-us-housing-2014-7China became the largest international buyer of U.S. homes (in dollar value) last year, according to a report from NAR, taking over from Canada. In terms of volume of transactions, Canadians still represented the largest foreign buyers.
Over the 12 months ended March 2014, Chinese buyers bought about $22 billion worth of properties in the U.S., accounting for about 25% of total international sales.
What's more, 76% of sales were all-cash purchases, while 24% required mortgage financing. But what exactly were Chinese buyers looking for and where were they looking?
California, Washington, and New York were the biggest markets for Chinese buyers. The median price of homes they purchases was $523,148.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-all-cash-buyers-in-us-housing-2014-7#ixzz37WbkgSlo
delrem
(9,688 posts)It's just circulation of capital, my friends.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Well, from the individual's standpoint taking money away from China's corrupt system and "investing" it in the US housing market certainly seems like far more safe proposition.
But why would the PBOC agree to quietly bless this activity which it has, at least openly, blasted vocally in the past?
Simple - to keep inflation in check.
Recall that China is a country which creates nearly $4 trillion in bank deposits every year. Also recall that back in 2011 China nearly chocked when inflation briefly soared out of control, leading to sporadic "Arab Spring" type riots in various cities. And since China simply can not reduce the pace of its loan creation at the macro level without crushing the economy, what it needs is to find outlets - legal or otherwise - that permit the outflow of funds.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-10/did-china-just-crush-us-housing-market
littlemissmartypants
(22,546 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)and some Americans were up in arms when they acquired iconic things like Rockefeller Center in New York City, the Bonaventure Hotel in L.A., and Columbia Pictures in Hollywood. As I recall, the Japanese largely divested themselves of the property because they took great losses and a lot of the high rises they bought were mostly empty. For their sake I hope the Chinese don't suffer a similar blow to their economy. Maybe they think the U.S. housing market is going to greatly improve. I assume these are mostly institutional investors from China, right?
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Many wealthy Chinese do not trust their government or care for the pollution, lack of good schools, bad food, and for those and other reasons and are planning accordingly to emigrate.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)unlikely, without substantial growth to the economy.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)This is Capitalism.