Foreign money is flowing back into American housing, proving that high U.S. mortgage rates and economic or political concerns are not stopping international buyers, who are more likely to pay all cash.
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According to new data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), foreign buyers purchased $56 billion worth of existing U.S. homes between April 2024 and March 2025. [1]
That total is up by about a third from the prior year. The total number of properties bought also jumped 44% to 78,100.
In context, this uptick is still far below the figures from around a decade ago. In 2017, non-U.S. citizens bought around 284,500 existing homes, spending $153 billion. Spending in this category dropped over 80% from 2017 to 2024, the period of lowest investment since 2012.
It’s also important to add that around half (56%) of these foreign buyers included in the study reside in the U.S., meaning they are non-U.S. citizens who live in the country as immigrants.
What makes foreign buyers unique
Foreign buyers are from all over the world, but Chinese nationals lead all other countries by share of buyers at 15%, followed by Canada at 14%, Mexico at 8%, India at 6%, and the U.K at 4%.
International buyers may have a different perspective and different motivations in the U.S. housing market than domestic buyers. Nearly half of foreign buyers pay all-cash, which means they can ignore higher interest rates that have squeezed domestic borrowers since early 2022. Nearly half also purchased a property for use as a vacation home, rental, or both, compared to 16% among all existing-home buyers.
Their median purchase price is around $90,000 higher than the overall market, which makes sense because where they shop also sets them apart. Foreign home-buying activity has been concentrated in high home-value states like Florida, California, Texas, New York and Arizona.
“The price difference reflects foreign buyers more often purchasing in more central locations and the different types of properties purchased. Nearly one-fifth (18%) of foreign buyers purchased properties worth more than $1 million from April 2024 to March 2025,” said the report.
Many international purchasers treat U.S. real estate as a safe place to park wealth. Research by Federal Reserve economists finds that U.S. housing often functions as a global safe asset for foreign investors [2], while rule-of-law benchmarks continue to place the U.S. among the stronger systems for property and contract enforcement. Those features may help insulate foreign demand from day-to-day political noise and from domestic mortgage conditions that matter more to financed buyers.
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What this means for today’s housing market
Foreign investment is still a very small slice of the U.S. housing market. In the 12 months through March 2025, international purchasers accounted for just 1.9% of existing-home sales, even after a sharp rebound in activity and dollar volume. Overall housing prices rose a modest 2.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2025 [3], a pace driven far more by broad supply and demand and by mortgage costs faced by domestic borrowers.
The picture changes in places that attract concentrated foreign capital, where the effect can be felt within specific neighborhoods and price tiers. One study by a Boston Fed economist of Chinese buyers in California argued that foreign investment in domestic housing markets has a major impact as they raise property values and force out lower income households. [4]
Since 2021, 43 states have introduced 355 bills restricting property ownership by foreign entities, and the U.S. Congress has introduced 59 such bills, according to Committee of 100, a non-profit organization of prominent Chinese Americans. [5]
But keep in mind these bills may aim largely at transparency and national security, not at lowering home prices for Americans. The U.S. Treasury’s new FinCEN rule will require reporting of specific all-cash residential transfers to entities and trusts starting December 1, 2025. These steps address money-laundering and geopolitical risks, which are real policy concerns, but they are unlikely to deliver broad affordability relief given how small the overall foreign share is.
How Americans can stay in the home-buying game
Though most American house hunters are not in competition with foreign buyers, they do have advantages as citizens that non-citizens don’t have. In the first place, they can get their metaphorical financial house in order before shopping by using the CFPB’s Owning a Home tools to compare loan offers, understand costs and secure a strong preapproval. A HUD-approved housing counselor can help them build a budget, strengthen their credit file and identify local down-payment assistance that fits their income and location.
They can also take advantage of FHA loans that can lower the upfront cash needed to buy a home to as little as a 3.5%. Shoppers in rural areas can avail themselves of USDA loans that offer zero down in eligible rural areas. VA loans often require no down payment for qualifying service members and veterans. By reviewing basic eligibility with official guidance and comparing multiple lenders for the tradeoffs among rate, fees, and mortgage insurance, buyers can compete more effectively with cash offers while staying within a sustainable budget.
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Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
National Association of Realtors (1); Federal Reserve (2); FHFA House Price Index (3); Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (4); Committee of 100 (5)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.