Foreign buyers cut back their
investment in U.S. residential properties over the 12 months that ended in
March. It was the second year-over-year decline. The National Association of
Realtors® (NAR) annual survey among its members about their transactions with
international clients found foreign buyers purchased $74 billion in existing U.S.
homes from April 2019 through March 2020, a 5 percent decline from the same
period a year earlier. The number of properties purchased dropped 16 percent to
154,000. Foreign buyers who were U.S. residents, either as recent immigrants or holding the appropriate visas, purchased
$41 billion in residential real estate, down 8 percent from the prior period.
Foreign buyers living abroad spent $33 billion, a 1 percent decrease. Those two
types of international buyers were responsible for 4 percent of the nation's total
existing home sales of $1.7 trillion during that period.