International homebuyers purchased the fewest number of existing homes for any year since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began tracking the data in 2009.
On Wednesday, the trade group reported in its 2024 International Transaction in U.S. Residential Real Estate Report that the number of existing homes purchased by international buyers had fallen 36% year over year to 54,300 homes during the year ending in March 2024.
These home purchases represented $42 billion in sales volume, which also fell year over year by 21.2%. This decrease came even as the average ($780,300) and median ($475,000) purchase prices for foreign buyers were the highest ever recorded by NAR, up 21.9% and 19.8%, respectively, from a year ago.
“The strong U.S. dollar makes international travel cheaper for Americans but makes U.S. homes much more expensive for foreigners,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Therefore, it’s not surprising to see a pullback in U.S. home sales from foreign buyers. Historically low housing inventory and escalating prices remain significant factors in constraining home sales for American and international buyers alike.”
Resident foreign buyers, who live in the U.S. as recent immigrants or hold visas that allow them to live in the U.S., purchased $22.6 billion worth of U.S. existing homes. That was a 3.4% decline from the previous year and represented 54% of the sales volume of homes purchased by international buyers.
Nonresident foreign buyers living abroad, on the other hand, made up 46% of the total sales volume, purchasing $19.4 billion of existing home inventory, down 35% annually.
In total, foreign buyers accounted for 2% of the $2.1 trillion in existing U.S. home sales during the 12-month period ending in March.
Compared to domestic buyers (28%), international buyers (50%) were more likely to purchase homes with cash. Nonresident foreign buyers (68%) were more likely to make an all-cash purchase than a resident foreign buyer (36%). And the international buyers who had the highest share of all-cash purchases were those from Canada (69%) and China (68%).
Nearly half of all international buyers came from Canada (13%), China (11%), Mexico (11%) and India (10%). The top destinations for foreign buyers were Florida (20%), Texas (13%), California (11%) and Arizona (5%). Georgia, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina each had shares of 4%.
Chinese buyers had the highest average purchase price at $1.3 million and they purchased a total of $7.5 billion in sales volume, the most of all international buyers, a trend that dates back to 2013. Buyers from Canada ($5.9 billion), India ($4.1 billion), Mexico ($2.8 billion) and Colombia ($0.7 billion) rounded out the top-five countries of origin for sales volume.
