Southland Homes Getting Foreign Money
The most money ever is coming into the housing market in the U.S. and the Southland is one of the most popular destinations.
Overseas buyers and recent immigrants made up 92 billion dollars of the total home purchase in the United States in the year leading up to this March, this stat coming from a study led by the National Association of Realtors® that was released on Tuesday. That’s up an incredible 35% over the year before, and it’s the most ever.
Almost a fourth of these overseas buyers were Chinese. And the place they prefer over all others in Southern California. Out of all of the cities in the U.S., Los Angeles was the number one location searched for by Chinese people on the realtor.com website, while San Francisco was second and Irvine was third.
There are multiple reasons why this amount of cash from foreign locations like China is flooding into South California real estate. Many families are looking to move to the area to support their children that are going to Californian colleges, and others want to get their children into quality high schools in the top districts.
That’s the main reason behind rising prices in this region which has always been popular with Chinese home buyers. Home values have already risen above pre-recession prices in most of the San Gabriel Valley, for example. And in Irvine homes are going quickly to eager young Asian families. These international home buyers are looking for regions where more of their fellow countrymen already reside. Maybe it’s the family connections or just familiarity with the names, but new buyers usually tend to follow the prior ones.
Good schools in the area seem to be a deciding factor as well. Many buyers with children that are immigrating to the U.S. have a top priority being a top-ranked school district. And the high-priced Chinese market can make Chinese home buyers see median home prices pushing $900,000 in some areas as a deal. Still, selling a small condo in China can easily pay for a big single-family home in the States.
