U.S. Housing Market

China overtakes Canada as the top country of origin for foreign buyers of U.S. homes and New Jersey enters the top five states for foreign buyers, according to the 2015 Profile of International Home Buying Activity complied from data gathered from The National Association of Realtors on purchases of U.S. real estate by international clients made during the 12 months from April 2014 to March 2015.

While total unit sales from international home buyers decreased from last year, total sales dollar volume increased 13 percent. For the period of April 2014 through March 2015, total international sales were estimated at $104 billion, compared to the previous year’s estimate of $92.2 billion. This represents 8 percent of the total existing-home sales dollar volume.

In 2014, five countries accounted for 51 percent of all purchases by international buyers: China, Canada, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. For the first time, buyers from China exceeded all other countries in terms of units purchased and dollar volume, purchasing an estimated $28.6 billion worth of property. Buyers from Canada followed with $11.2 billion in purchases, followed by India with $7.9 billion, Mexico with $4.9 billion and the U.K. with $3.8 billion.

International buyers tend to purchase more expensive properties with the average purchase price being $499,600, compared to the overall U.S. average house price of $255,600. Chinese buyers typically purchased the most expensive properties, at an average price of $831,800.

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