Chinese buyers grab up US homes as Americans struggle to own

A large portion of Americans are struggling with the ability to purchase a home, but one group of people is buying them up at alarming rates.

Purchasing a home has long been considered part and parcel of the American dream, giving people a piece of land to call their own where they can raise the next generation of United States citizens. Unfortunately, economic woes have kickstarted an affordability crisis among those, particularly the newer generations, who are looking to purchase a house.

But a Fox Business report indicates that your fellow American isn’t the only one you’ll have to compete with if you want to settle down. Chinese and other foreign investors are snapping up homes in the United States at a shocking rate.

“The number of existing homes purchased by foreign buyers from April 2024 to March 2025 increased for the first time since 2017, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The report highlights that Chinese buyers represented the largest portion of foreign investors in terms of total spending and transaction volume, purchasing $13.7 billion worth of existing homes – an 83% increase from the prior year,” the outlet wrote.

This represents a significant increase from “the $7.5 billion worth of purchases in the prior year,” and these buyers boast a stunningly high average purchase price at $1.2 million. Most of these purchases are located in states where home prices are already quite high.

“For instance, about 36% of Chinese buyers purchased a property in California, while 9% purchased property in New York, according to the report,” Fox Business wrote in their article.

These foreign buyers are taking advantage of Americans’ inability to afford homes, according to Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner.

“If you look in that NAR report, over half of these international buyers are making cash purchases, because they can. They’re wealthy international folks who are looking at the market in the U.S. right now and seeing there’s not a lot of demand for homes in the U.S.,” he said.

As an example of how Americans are finding it more difficult to afford a home, Freddie Mac indicates that the average interest on a 30-year mortgage loan is currently 6.67%. This is nearly double the 3% interest rate from December 2021, when the pandemic was still in full swing.

“On top of that, home prices are hitting record highs. Nationwide, prices have risen nearly 4% year over year and a staggering 60% since 2019, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies’ State of the Nation’s Housing report. In turn, it drove the cost of a typical existing single-family home to a record $412,000 in 2024,” the report continued.

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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