As the Chinese economy continues to boom, Chinese are looking abroad to spend money on real estate. So, where are they buying?
In a recent article on CNNMoney, New York and Los Angeles top the list of U.S. cities they are most interested in, according to Juwai.com, a website where Chinese buyers browse global real estate listings. More surprisingly, Philadelphia and Detroit come in at No. 3 and No. 4. The top 10 list is rounded out by Houston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Diego and Memphis.
Chinese buyers purchased $8.2 billion worth of U.S. property in 2012, according to Juwai. It ranked cities by how many searches they attracted from Chinese house hunters.
This is a welcome clientele for U.S. sellers. The median home price among Chinese buyers was $425,000 in 2012, compared with the overall median U.S. home price of $199,500.
And the transactions are often quick and clean: with 70% of the Chinese buyers pay cash, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Buyers have different reasons for picking a city: a substantial Chinese community, a home near colleges their children can attend, or they are looking for economically strong city to diversify their investments.
Wei Min Tan, a broker with Rutenberg Realty in Manhattan, said that most Chinese buy to rent out, or for sporadic use themselves.