WASHINGTON–As if there were not enough pressures on buyers within the real estate market already—especially first-time buyers—new analysis has found international buyers are increasingly purchasing middle market homes.
Many foreign buyers had been concentrating on high-end and luxury properties, but increasing home prices combined with a stronger U.S. dollar have led many to move down into the market and purchase less-expensive homes.
"Weaker economic growth throughout the world, devalued foreign currencies and financial market turbulence combined to present significant challenges for foreign buyers over the past year," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in a statement. "While these obstacles led to a cool down in sales from nonresident foreign buyers, the purchases by recent immigrant foreigners rose, resulting in the overall sales dollar volume still being the second highest since 2009."
According to the NAR, foreign buyers purchased $102.6 billion of residential property in the U.S. between April 2015 and March 2016. That number reflects a 1.3% decline in dollar volume from the previous NAR survey. The number of properties purchased, however, rose 2.8% to 214,885. The value of homes bought by foreigners was typically higher than the median price of all U.S. homes, the NAR said.