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Slowing global growth and low housing inventory led to a significant drop in foreign investment in U.S. residential real estate over the past year, according to a recent market survey.
Foreign buyers purchased 77.9 billion U.S. dollar worth of U.S. existing homes from April 2018 through March 2019, a 36 percent decline from the previous 12 months, the U.S. National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed in an annual report released this week.
Non-resident foreign buyers accounted for 33.2 billion dollars of existing-home sales, a 37 percent decline from the prior survey year. Resident foreign buyers, or recent immigrants, purchased 44.7 billion dollars worth of residential property, a 34 percent drop from the prior level.
NAR believes that the fall was due to declining world economic growth.
"A confluence of many factors - slower economic growth abroad, tighter capital controls in China, a stronger U.S. dollar and a low inventory of homes for sale - contributed to the pullback of foreign buyers," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
"However, the magnitude of the decline is quite striking, implying less confidence in owning a property in the U.S.," he added.
According to the survey, for the seventh consecutive year, Chinese buyers exceeded all other countries in terms of dollar volume of purchases, but there was a 56 percent decline from the previous 12 months. Canada, India, Britain and Mexico followed China on the top five foreign buyers list, in terms of dollar volume of purchases.
Florida has attracted most Canadians, while Chinese buyers like California most, according to the survey.
The third most popular destination among international buyers is Texas, particularly among Indian and Mexican buyers.
(CGTN)
