For quite a few years now, buyers from outside the United States have played a major role in the local housing market. Name a foreign country and the chances are that money originating there has found its way into Bay Area real estate. Much of that has been residential property.
Although America’s housing inventory shortage caused foreign buyer activity to drop substantially last year, the share of overseas buyers who invested in California moved in the other direction.
The National Association of Realtors’ latest Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate says that foreign citizens were responsible for $121 billion worth of residential transactions for the year ended March 2018, a year-over-year decline of 20 percent. In a statement accompanying the report, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun attributed the drop to more competition from U.S. buyers, who are motivated by a thriving job market and interest rates that remain low by historic standards.
For the sixth consecutive year, China continued to invest the most money in the U.S. real estate market, accounting for $30.4 billion of total sales volume. Though Chinese citizens still spend more on homes than other global buyers — at a median price of $439,100 — activity dipped by 4 percent from the previous year.
Despite high-dollar price tags, California remains the second most popular state for international homebuyers behind Florida, with global buyers responsible for 14 percent of overall real estate activity. In last year’s survey, overseas buyers accounted for 12 percent of California home purchases.
If you’re considering the sale of your property, wouldn’t you like to be able to take advantage of this situation? How, you ask. Well, you need a Realtor who has the ability to present your real property to that foreign buyers pool just as effectively as it’s shown to local buyers. Does your Realtor have that operational capability and experience? Remember, it’s a lot easier said than done.
Pacific Union has a network of overseas contacts to initiate the process. Even better, The Richmond Team has years of overseas residency and business experience in Europe and Asia that it can call on to help you penetrate those markets when it’s time to sell. It’s just one more way to put you in the driver’s seat. Give us a call and let us put that expertise to work for you! The numbers are: Peter: (415) 279-6466; Jane: (415) 531-4091.