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International buyers picked up fewer homes last year; but when they bought, they spent big.
The number of existing homes sold to international buyers fell to 84,600 between April 2022 and March 2023, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors. That’s a 14.2 percent drop compared to a year earlier, and it’s the lowest number of foreign home purchases since 2009.
Still, international homebuyers have never spent more on homes they purchased.
Lawrence Yun
“Sharply lower housing inventory in the U.S. and higher borrowing costs across the world have dented international buyers for two straight years,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “However, recovering international travel following the end of the pandemic will bring more foreign transactions in coming months and years.”
Total spending fell 10 percent, to $53.3 billion, NAR reported.
The average price of homes sold to foreign buyers was $639,900, NAR said. The median price was $396,400. Both were record highs at 7 percent and 8.3 percent higher than the previous year, respectively, according to NAR.
And while the number of transactions fell to the lowest level in the past 14 years, it was less of a drop than the U.S. market overall. Existing home sales during the same period fell 17.8 percent from 2021.
The pullback was stronger among foreign buyers who permanently reside within the U.S., according to an NAR survey shared in the report.
Sales volume fell 31.4 percent among recent immigrants or those who hold visas allowing them to live in the U.S., NAR reported.
Sales volume actually rose 20 percent among those who live abroad and accounted for 56 percent of the value of homes sold to foreign buyers for the year. (International buyers make up 2.3 percent of the $2.3 trillion existing-home market.)
Florida has been the most popular state for foreign buyers for 15 straight years, NAR said. That metric is helped by the fact that half of foreign buyers purchased their home as a place to vacation.
Chinese buyers had the highest average purchase price at $1.23 million, NAR reported. Nearly a third of those purchases were in California.
Top countries for foreign buyers
- China ($13.6 billion)
- Canada ($6.6 billion)
- Mexico ($4.2 billion)
- India ($3.4 billion)
- Colombia ($0.9 billion)
Top markets for foreign buyers
- Florida (23 percent)
- California (12 percent)
- Texas (12 percent)
- North Carolina (4 percent)
- Arizona (4 percent)
- Illinois (4 percent)
