The Chinese earn so many dollars selling goods here that they have to get rid of them somehow. Other than soy beans, I am not aware of much else that they buy here other than real estate and college degrees. If you want a Chinese treat check into the Walfdorf Astoria. If you want to meet the younger members of their wealthiest families visit the campuses of our most posh universities.
1
They're not really buying real estate, they're converting (illicit) foreign cash to less liquid, hard-to-track and hard-to-sieze assets (from a foreign government's pov). In many cases the money is fleeing political flux (Brexit, Demonetization etc.). U.S. Real Estate is actually now the new Switzerland.
With Canada, at least part of the money is from people fleeing the open-migration and marijuana-mecca policies that Trudeau's working on. Yes, it's Canadians fleeing from bad-boy Trudeau to less bad boy Trump.
The properties are usually not the type normal Americans dream of. They're souped-up, overpriced, balance-sheet assets that accountants lust for.
So the question really is, why is the U.S. government playing along? Because it returns foreign dollars back home. Meanwhile, U.S. companies continue to hoard their cash abroad, to avoid paying tax on it.
In the coming years, expect only slowdowns as local governments wisen-up and arm-wrestle the outflows to a trickle. At which point, the U.S. will likely arm-wrestle U.S. companies by imposing deadlines to truck their cash home.
Dollar, please don't stop coming home. Just singin', that's all.
With Canada, at least part of the money is from people fleeing the open-migration and marijuana-mecca policies that Trudeau's working on. Yes, it's Canadians fleeing from bad-boy Trudeau to less bad boy Trump.
The properties are usually not the type normal Americans dream of. They're souped-up, overpriced, balance-sheet assets that accountants lust for.
So the question really is, why is the U.S. government playing along? Because it returns foreign dollars back home. Meanwhile, U.S. companies continue to hoard their cash abroad, to avoid paying tax on it.
In the coming years, expect only slowdowns as local governments wisen-up and arm-wrestle the outflows to a trickle. At which point, the U.S. will likely arm-wrestle U.S. companies by imposing deadlines to truck their cash home.
Dollar, please don't stop coming home. Just singin', that's all.
2
Look at the bright side, if foreign buyers purchase Apartment Buildings that are under rent control it would be interesting to see what techniques the new landlords use to force out these money-losing tenants. Perhaps the old water torture technique comes to mind.
All while the Canadian and US government's scramble to implement more and more taxes on cross border real estate transactions. Canada markets themselves as the greatest place on earth to live, why the US investment. Just to make money ?
We all like buying cheap goods made in China which in turn enrich a select few Chinese business men and when I say enrich, I mean create billionaires who then need to get their billions out of the country. Living in Vancouver I've seen the influence of Chinese money on real estate. You need a million dollars to begin looking at single family housing in the Lower Mainland. Maybe we should think twice about buying cheap goods.
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So it has finally been admitted that foreign buyers have an effect on the real estate market, a couple of decades after the fact. Anyone living in San Francisco could have told them that years ago. But instead we have been told over and over the idea that foreigners affect our market is racist nonsense. Chinese buyers, what Chinese buyers, you must just be imagining it. Well, score another win for the alt-right.
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The Chinese no longer invade cities or countries, they buy them instead.
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Its a free Country, isn't it ? Well, that all depends on how you look at it. As far as "our" State Department sees it, a citizen of Communist China can spend $500 K on a Real Estate deal, and, in so doing, receive a "life-time Green Card" that's called an EB-40 Visa. That Communist Chinese Citizen, AND his family, are then free to travel anywhere in the United States without any restrictions or impunity.
Americans, on the other hand, are NOT free to travel anywhere in China, and particularly in the area that once was the Nation of Tibet. This form of "Diplomacy" is completely unbalanced, unfair, and truly frightening. Xi Jinping and the Communist Party are NOT America's friends. Xi would cut our throats now, if he could. His guile and false smile are obvious when one looks at Tiannamen Square, Hong Kong, and the false "Islands" he is building for Military Bases off of Viet Nam's Coast.
"Our" Government is allowing Communists to purchase American Land. As Mark Twain so aptly put it; "They're not making Land anymore". How can we be so careless with our Nation's soil, mountains and beaches?
Trump wants to bar Muslims. Everybody is worried about "the Russians". I am far more concerned with Communist Chinese buying ANY of this Nation's Land. Until Americans have equal ability to travel and document the atrocities happening today in Tibet, this Real Estate "surge" is an insult to our Nation's core values.
Americans, on the other hand, are NOT free to travel anywhere in China, and particularly in the area that once was the Nation of Tibet. This form of "Diplomacy" is completely unbalanced, unfair, and truly frightening. Xi Jinping and the Communist Party are NOT America's friends. Xi would cut our throats now, if he could. His guile and false smile are obvious when one looks at Tiannamen Square, Hong Kong, and the false "Islands" he is building for Military Bases off of Viet Nam's Coast.
"Our" Government is allowing Communists to purchase American Land. As Mark Twain so aptly put it; "They're not making Land anymore". How can we be so careless with our Nation's soil, mountains and beaches?
Trump wants to bar Muslims. Everybody is worried about "the Russians". I am far more concerned with Communist Chinese buying ANY of this Nation's Land. Until Americans have equal ability to travel and document the atrocities happening today in Tibet, this Real Estate "surge" is an insult to our Nation's core values.
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Nonsense. There is no such a thing as EB-40 visa. The time to complain about Communist China was back in the 1970s. Nixon's normalizing relations with PRC was the brilliant move that paved the U.S. to win the Cold War. Are you so hurt and threatened that millions of Chinese have pulled themselves out of abject poverty? You can't have it both ways--complaining about Communist China and then lamenting that the capitalist Chinese are buying U.S. real estate. What you have is the oldest Western disease--it's called Yellow Peril. Look it up.
1
If you had family or friends living in Lhasa in 1959, you would think and feel differently. Today, Tibetans are put in prison for displaying a picture of the Dali Lama, or flying the Tibetan flag. Citizens in China, today, are not free to criticize their government, or have free access to news from other countries.
My views are not "yellow peril". My view is an accurate summation of the Chinese Communist Party's rampant greed and expansion at a huge cost in Human Rights. Since "the 1970"s", Communist China has made the situation in Tibet far worse, every day.
My views are not "yellow peril". My view is an accurate summation of the Chinese Communist Party's rampant greed and expansion at a huge cost in Human Rights. Since "the 1970"s", Communist China has made the situation in Tibet far worse, every day.
1
The increase in real estate bought by Canadians doesn't account for new Canadian citizens of Chinese descent. It's really easy to get citizenship in Canada once you are a landed immigrant, and my suspicion is a lot of Chinese buyers who are now Canadian citizens are pouring money into the US real estate.
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Wait a minute. Is this article telling us that twice as many Canadians are moving to the US this year as did last year? But I thought...
2
Ben:
Check a little closer here. The real estate purchased by Canadians is primarily in places like Florida and Arizona by those who are using it as a winter vacation destination. Rest assured, they are NOT relocating to the U.S. especialy older Canadians who wish to maintain their healthcare, something that looks like is soon to disappear for American Seniors, that is, if Trump and the Republicans get their way.
Check a little closer here. The real estate purchased by Canadians is primarily in places like Florida and Arizona by those who are using it as a winter vacation destination. Rest assured, they are NOT relocating to the U.S. especialy older Canadians who wish to maintain their healthcare, something that looks like is soon to disappear for American Seniors, that is, if Trump and the Republicans get their way.
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As the banking secrecy gets abolished around the world, the non declared, black money has to go somewhere. As the real estate market in the US is not controlled as the banks are, it goes into real estate in the US.
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