Home Purchases

In 2013, China passed Canada to become the top source of foreign home purchases in the United States. The value of Chinese purchases nearly doubled between 2013 and 2014, a surge that attended increasing quality-of-life concerns in China and political uncertainty around Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.

Home-buying then stabilized at around $30 billion a year until 2019, when total spending and unit volume both fell by over 50%. Beijing’s tightening capital controls mean that wealthy Chinese find it harder to move large sums of money abroad, but it’s likely this sudden drop in purchases also reflects sharply deteriorating perceptions of how welcome Chinese are in America.