International Buyers in US Housing

Contents

1. How the count is made
2. Resident and nonresident buyers
3. Currencies and buying power
4. Travel and the pandemic
5. Cash and financing
6. Countries of origin
7. Destination states
8. Withholding on sales by foreign owners
9. The honest limit

Mike Kobeissi’s firm works with international buyers from Korea, China and the Middle East, and readers who come to this subject usually ask one plain question: how much American housing do buyers from abroad actually purchase? The best available answer comes from a yearly survey. In the twelve months to March 2026, the National Association of Realtors reported, foreign buyers purchased 67,100 existing homes worth $45.3 billion, a 14 percent drop in units and a 19.1 percent drop in dollars from the year before, and the second lowest count since tracking began in 2009.⁷ Two years earlier, foreign purchases made up about 2 percent of the $2.1 trillion in existing home sales nationwide.⁵

How the count is made

The figures come from asking members, not from public records. The association surveys its members about transactions with international clients over a twelve month period running from April to March.⁷ The series covers existing homes only; CNBC noted in 2026 that newly built homes are left out because those sales are harder to track.⁴ Earlier surveys asked a simpler question. The New York Times reported in 2008 that 32 percent of Realtors had dealt with international clients in the association’s first survey, covering 2006 to 2007, and that the share fell to 26 percent a year later. Among agents who did close such deals, international clients made up a median 16 percent of their transactions.¹

Resident and nonresident buyers

The survey divides foreign buyers into two groups. Resident foreign buyers are recent immigrants or holders of visas that let them live in the United States; nonresident buyers live abroad.⁷ In the 2026 report residents bought 37,600 homes, 56 percent of the total, and nonresidents 29,500, though the nonresident group spent more in dollars.⁷ The balance moves. In the 2023 report, USA Today found, buyers living abroad accounted for 56 percent of dollar volume after a 20 percent rise.⁶ A year later the split by dollars had turned again, 54 percent for residents and 46 percent for nonresidents, whose spending fell 35 percent.⁵

Figure

Foreign purchases of existing US homes, April 2025 to March 2026

Homes purchased, down 14 percent

67,100

Total dollar volume, down 19.1 percent

$45.3 billion

Median purchase price

$465,000

Share paid all in cash, against 28 percent of all existing home buyers

48 percent

Currencies and buying power

Exchange rates change what a house costs to someone paid in another currency. In 2012, The Guardian reported, a weak dollar and low prices drew $82.5 billion of foreign purchases, almost 9 percent of sales and a 24 percent jump in a year.² The opposite came in 2024, when HousingWire reported the fewest foreign purchases since 2009, 54,300 homes, and the association’s chief economist explained that a strong dollar makes travel cheap for Americans and American homes expensive for everyone else. The same report recorded the highest average and median prices the association had seen for foreign buyers, $780,300 and $475,000.⁵ A year before, he had also pointed to thin American inventory and higher borrowing costs around the world.⁶

Travel and the pandemic

Buying usually starts with a visit, so travel limits show quickly. From April 2020 to March 2021, CNBC reported, sales to foreign buyers fell 31 percent to 107,000 properties, the lowest volume since 2011, which the chief economist tied to lockdowns and travel restrictions. Dollar volume from several of the largest origin countries fell by half or more, and the United Kingdom was the only one of the top five to rise.³ Virtual tours multiplied in the same period.³ In 2026 he linked a new decline to fewer international visitors and tourists, noting that even a slightly weaker dollar had not revived activity.⁷

Cash and financing

Foreign buyers pay cash far more often than domestic ones. The 2008 survey found four in ten international buyers paying cash, against 7 percent of domestic buyers.¹ In the 2026 report the share was 48 percent, compared with 28 percent among all existing home buyers.⁷ Distance matters within the group: in 2023, 52 percent of nonresident buyers paid all cash, against 32 percent of those living in the United States.⁶ The 2024 gap was wider still, 68 percent against 36 percent.⁵

Countries of origin

The survey reports where buyers come from, nationally. In 2026 buyers from Canada made up the largest share of purchases, 16 percent, followed by Mexico at 14 percent, China at 11 percent, India at 9 percent and the United Kingdom at 4 percent.⁷ Rankings by dollars differ from rankings by units, because average prices vary widely between groups; in the 2026 report China led dollar volume at $7.6 billion with an average price near $1 million.⁷

Figure

Top countries of origin by share of purchases, 2026 report

• Canada16
• Mexico14
• China11
• India9
• United Kingdom4

Destination states

Purchases concentrate in a few large states. Florida has led for many years; USA Today counted 2023 as its fifteenth straight year at the top.⁶ In the 2026 report Florida drew 20 percent of foreign purchases, California 19 percent and Texas 12 percent, with New Jersey and Georgia at 4 percent each.⁷ In 2012 five states together took 55 percent.²

Withholding on sales by foreign owners

Federal tax rules reach the other side of the transaction, when a foreign owner sells. The Internal Revenue Service’s Form 8288 series is used by a withholding agent to report and transmit tax that must be withheld under section 1445 when a United States real property interest is acquired from a foreign person.⁸ The paperwork that follows a purchase from abroad is covered under remote closings and notarization, and the risk attached to moving the money under wire fraud in home purchases.

The honest limit

The numbers describe national flows, measured imperfectly. They come from a survey of members rather than a census of deeds, they leave out new construction, and the 2008 coverage recorded criticism that the association balances its role as researcher with its role as an industry booster.¹⁴ One 2026 analyst added that foreign buyers are not a single market, since wealthy investors, households seeking residency and skilled workers relocating for jobs respond to different forces.⁴ None of it describes a particular town or street. Any one purchase raises its own questions of tax, residency and financing, and those belong with the buyer’s own advisors.