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As the article rightly notes, land ownership by foreigners differ from state to state:
"In the U.S., laws surrounding land ownership differ from state to state, with some states placing strict rules on foreign land ownership, while others have been depicted as "free-for-alls."
"Texas is kind of a free-for-all, so they don't have a limit on how much land can be owned," Ohio Farm Bureau Director of Media Relations Ty Higgins told NPR. Meanwhile, Higgins said, "you look at Iowa and they restrict it—no land in Iowa is owned by a foreign entity."
We must also note, for perspective:
"The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States."
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf
More pointed:
"The number of farms in the United States for2019 is estimated at 2,023,400, down 5,800 farms from 2018. Total land in farms, at 897,400,000 acres, decreased 2,100,000 acres from 2018. The average farm size for 2019i s 444acres, up 1acre from the previous year"
So, of the 900,000,000 acres of farmland, foreigners own 30 million.
I will note that some people were concerned, in the mid 1970s, with land being 'snapped up' by the Japanese.
However, and this is key: land cannot be exported. Sure, trees and such can, but not land. When Japan fell into financial difficulty, many Japanese owners had to sell their land, often back to Americans.
You may want to question why Texas has no limits on foreign purchase of land, while Iowa prohibits it.
Do you think it was originally set up that foreign nations could buy all the land in the USA, in a purchase without the peoples consent?
Guess what has happened.
Vast swaths of land in North America, are no longer owned by the USA.
What is in place is fair. Poor countries arbitrarily limit who can own land. If you think this isn’t fair I direct your attention to the Louisiana purchase, Alaska and other deal America has made in the past. Heck Trump wanted to buy Greenland. You can actually tell how well off a country is based upon these rules. Thailand won’t allow you to buy land yet Japan will. Japan is much more confident in that regard that it can welcom foreign investors and benefit from it rather than being raped by it.
The EB-5 Immigrant Visa was created by the Bush 1 Admin in 1990. It enables immigrant investors to HAVE THE POTENTIAL to invest $X in just about anything in the US and receive a Green Card for themselves, spouse and unmarried adult children under 21. Right now X= $900,000. Green card is the pathway to citizenship, if desired by the holder.
Kushner family was observed using the EB-5 visa benefit to sell investment in its financially- distressed 666 Park Ave property, during presentations it hosted in China. While it created a buzz at the time, there is nothing illegal about it and is quite common with real estate developers.
A substantial portion of $50 million + condos in NY and LA metro and single family compounds are owned by foreign interests, typically through trusts or financial intermediaries.
While POTUS, Trump told the world he loves the Saudis because they buy a lot of stuff from him.
Back to Kushner, they finally were able to acquire the financing they desperately needed for 666 Park Ave from Qatar via an intermediary.
All this buzzing around in the Middle East to broker peace had a lot more to do with Kushner’s need for financing than anything else. He pitted the Saudis against the Qataris and influenced blockaids. Reqportedly, former SoS Tillerson balked and that was the end of Tillerson.
Anything and everything Jared Kushner touched while serving as Sr advisor to Trump, is worthy of a deepest dive investigation. Not likely to happen. No diff than Hunter Biden which is peanuts compared to Kushner.
Do you think it was originally set up that foreign nations could buy all the land in the USA, in a purchase without the peoples consent?
Guess what has happened.
Vast swaths of land in North America, are no longer owned by the USA.
Pre revolution, some colonies restricted ownership of land to its own citizens. This practice was terminated by the Constitution which is silent on land ownership by non- US people.
As a young country, the US was very dependent on European capital to develop industry and trade. This is not too different from today except that the source of capital has expanded to the globe.
States are free to impose restrictions on forested lands. Most restrictions contain intentional loopholes.
Your state has no restrictions/ limitations and appears to allow the free market to sort it out.
Of course, I doubt many Americans are buying 'farm land' overseas (although many Americans have bought vineyards in France), but nevertheless they are purchasing foreign land (especially in Mexico).
Do you think it was originally set up that foreign nations could buy all the land in the USA, in a purchase without the peoples consent?
Without the people's consent? Then who consented to sell the land in the first place?
Somebody has to decide to sell the land, be it a person, a trust, or a company; if it's a trust or company - a human in charge still ultimately makes the decision. I don't know of any transactions where no person gave the consent.
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