US housing market still ‘very appealing’ for Chinese buyers, with purchases tipped to surge in 2022

[2Easy]

Originally Posted by luv4horses

Where does that 600 million figure come from? In California that might only represent 600 to 800 houses. So 600M seems low unless foreigners are getting low down payment mortgages, which is unlikely.

Exactly. Even if they aren’t buying in a coastal city this is less than 2,000 homes. Unless they’re all in one city, it’s insignificant and even then it’s just a blip.

[Avondalist]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

Depends whether their own property bubble bursts which is looking far more likely to happen sooner rather than later.

I would be very interested to know the leverage used to buy these properties.

My gut feeling is that the funds for American property are mostly borrowed in China, with properties there as collateral. And a good share of that collateral is backing multiple loans.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

I would be very interested to know the leverage used to buy these properties.

My gut feeling is that the funds for American property are mostly borrowed in China, with properties there as collateral. And a good share of that collateral is backing multiple loans.

Yeah… the situation in China’s property market is not good and they’re already seeing the bubble starting to burst. There may be a rush to the exits among those with excess liquid cash but any assets tied up in (or tied to) their massive property sector could be problematic.

[paytonc]

Big huge nothingburger fearmongering.

Originally Posted by DFW_FTW

About US$700 million worth of Chinese money entered the US commercial property market over the year ending in September, up from US$600 million the previous year, the Washington-based National Association of Realtors said in a February outlook.

US commercial real estate in 2018 was a $16T+ asset class, or 16 million million. At this rate, and assuming no further inflation, it would take almost 27,000 years for "China to own the US."

US residential real estate is far, far larger: a $44 trillion asset class.

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

Should be illegal for people or institutions to buy property in this country if they aren't based here.

"Alien Land Laws" are unconstitutional: "The Alien Land Laws were invalidated in 1952 by the Supreme Court of California as a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution in Sei Fujii v. California"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...nd_Law_of_1913
Southern segregationists were inspired by these laws to begin residential segregation through means such as racial zoning.

Three generations of my family were deprived of the opportunity to buy a home in California thanks to that law.

[Veritas Vincit]

Originally Posted by paytonc

"Alien Land Laws" are unconstitutional: "The Alien Land Laws were invalidated in 1952 by the Supreme Court of California as a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution in Sei Fujii v. California"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...nd_Law_of_1913
Southern segregationists were inspired by these laws to begin residential segregation through means such as racial zoning.

Three generations of my family were deprived of the opportunity to buy a home in California thanks to that law.

First of all, the Supreme Court of California cannot with finality *decide* that it's unconstitutional in U.S. terms. The fact a state court made that decision and the matter didn't go to the U.S. Supreme Court leads me to believe that the defendants in this case - the state of California - weren't actually very invested by the early 1950s to uphold that law. After all in the 1920s the actual U.S. Supreme Court had upheld these laws as entirely constitutional.



But that was a separate issue altogether - a long term legal resident barred from buying a house on the basis of their citizenship. Any future laws restricting real estate ownership of foreign interests would not be aimed at immigrant populations in the U.S. but people and institutions based outside the U.S.


They would simply add residency requirements to purchases. Mr. Fujii would have not been affected by such requirements and neither would have your family in California.



The idea here is not to ban foreigners who're invested in America by living here or employing many Americans from owning property, but those abroad who seek to own property solely for the speculative purpose of gaining financial or other advantage.

[mhays25]

How about we keep the investment money flowing in, but add another tax for homes left empty more than 75% of the time? This would encourage the holdouts to at least rent their places.

Let cities opt in/out. The expensive cities will tend to opt in, and the cheaper places that lack investment will either like the tax or the investors (or rich people with multiple houses).

Hard to do of course. But it would preserve the dollars and increase the available housing supply.