Foreign homebuyers spend twice as much on average than domestic buyers, according to the National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) 2017 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate.
NAR’s Economists’ Outlook Blog reports that the average price among foreign homebuyers in the U.S. is $536,900, nearly twice as much as the $277,700 average among domestic buyers. The median price of foreign real estate purchases between April 2016 and March 2017 was $302,290, about 30 percent higher than the domestic median.
Among the major foreign buyers, Chinese buyers typically purchased residential properties that were more expensive than properties purchased by other buyers. This can be attributed to the tendency of Chinese buyers to purchase residential properties in central cities and suburban areas with relatively higher property prices such as California, New Jersey, and New York.
Foreign buyers, especially non-residents, are more likely to pay for homes in cash— seventy-two percent of non-resident foreign buyers made an all-cash purchase compared to 35 percent of resident foreign buyers.