The number of existing homes purchased by international home buyers was the lowest annually since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began tracking the data in 2009.
The number of existing homes purchased by international buyers in the year ending March 2024 fell 36% from a year earlier to 54,300, the industry group reported Wednesday in its “2024 U.S. Residential Real Estate International Transactions Report.”
These home purchases represented $42 billion in sales, also down 21.2% from 2018. This decline occurred even as the average purchase price ($780,300) and median price ($475,000) for foreign buyers reached new highs on NAR records, up 21.9% and 19.8%, respectively, from 2018.
“A strong U.S. dollar makes international travel cheaper for Americans, but makes U.S. homes much more expensive for foreigners,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “The decline in U.S. home sales to foreign buyers is therefore not surprising. Historically low housing inventory and high prices continue to be major factors inhibiting home sales for both U.S. and foreign buyers.”
Resident foreign buyers who recently immigrated to the U.S. or who hold a visa allowing them to live in the U.S. purchased $22.6 billion worth of U.S. existing homes, down 3.4% from the previous year and accounting for 54% of home sales purchased by foreign buyers.
Meanwhile, non-resident foreign buyers overseas accounted for 46% of total sales, purchasing $19.4 billion worth of existing homes, down 35% from the previous year.
Sales to foreign buyers combined accounted for 2% of the $2.1 trillion in total U.S. existing home sales in the 12 months ending in March.
International buyers (50%) were more likely to purchase their home with cash compared to domestic buyers (28%). Non-resident foreign buyers (68%) were more likely to purchase all with cash than resident foreign buyers (36%). Additionally, international buyers most likely to purchase all with cash were buyers from Canada (69%) and China (68%).
Nearly half of the international buyers were from Canada (13%), China (11%), Mexico (11%) and India (10%). The leading destinations for international buyers were Florida (20%), Texas (13%), California (11%) and Arizona (5%). Georgia, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina each accounted for a 4% share.
Chinese buyers had the highest average purchase price at $1.3 million and total sales of $7.5 billion, making them the largest international buyer, a trend dating back to 2013. Rounding out the top five countries by sales were buyers from Canada ($5.9 billion), India ($4.1 billion), Mexico ($2.8 billion) and Colombia ($700 million).