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EscapeCalifornia, I'm not saying that they will buy every house in America. But with the state of the economy and Americans not being able to buy a home without debt what do you think might happen? There should be a bit more difficulty in foreigner investors to acquire any property in the US just as it would be in their country. What is the problem?
Mikeetc, Americans can not buy easily in So. America, many countries in Africa the US can not buy, Carribean, Mexico, same thing with most of Asia, etc. You can rent/lease but you can't own and if you do it will cost you. Why can't the US do the same thing?
Basically because we live in a relatively free market society open to practically anyone with the money.
My son lived in Germantown, Md for 10 years...this fall he moved 40 miles away to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to escape the high taxation there.
His City Income Tax had averaged $25,000 per year.
His home in Germantown was a 2 story home valued at about $850 k. He sold it in the recent depressed economy for $650K.
Around him were his neighbors..over 200 of them...all chinese nationals living in new similar homes paid for by the chinese government while they worked in state dept jobs in downtown DC.
If the neighbors could talk to you privately in the back yard, they were the very best of friends.
On the front sidewalk it was another story. When walking of a morning, if you stopped to speak to someone, a neighbor would run from an adjaicient home to see what was going on...so paranoid.
Everyone was spying on each other...
My son got a belly full of it and found a place without that type of social criteria.
Why did he live there? He was one of the first in that neighborhood and was the only american national for blocks around who's family spoke English.
His job was critical and sensitive...I'm sure they had his number.
Harper's Ferry? Everybody on the new block speaks English and doesn't care if you walk the dog or not...was a good move, for sure.
EscapeCalifornia, I'm not saying that they will buy every house in America. But with the state of the economy and Americans not being able to buy a home without debt what do you think might happen? There should be a bit more difficulty in foreigner investors to acquire any property in the US just as it would be in their country. What is the problem?
If we can't buy a home without debt, there is no one else to blame except ourselves for not saving our money.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Americans can't buy foreign land. The real estate is actually a global market.
TimC2462, I am first generation American and married to a foreigner and have lived abroad and know for a fact that it is not easy nor at times a possibility for US Americans to purchase abroad. Have you tried doing so? Name the countries where Americans can buy and where Americans can buy without penalty and name the places where we can't.
Why is it so easy for foreigners to buy US property but it is difficult for the US citizen to buy in other countries?
The Chinese are coming, to buy bargain US homes (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/12/international/i083518S78.DTL&type=realestate - broken link)
It's because the US simply invades other countries rather than buying up their houses.
TimC2462, I am first generation American and married to a foreigner and have lived abroad and know for a fact that it is not easy nor at times a possibility for US Americans to purchase abroad. Have you tried doing so? Name the countries where Americans can buy and where Americans can buy without penalty and name the places where we can't.
South Korea, Costa Rica, Italy, France, Colombia, Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, etc.
What foreign country is refusing you to purchase land there?
South Korea, Costa Rica, Italy, France, Colombia, Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, etc.
What foreign country is refusing you to purchase land there?
Tim C.
Mexico has restrictions on the sale of land to foreigners, so does Poland (although the EU has been trying to force the Poles to change their laws).
Not sure about South Korea or Colombia. North Korea definitely does NOT allow the sale of property to foreigners, neither do Cuba or Zimbabwe, but I don't know who would want to move to those countries.
In all the other countries named by Tim Americans are able to buy property.
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