As the world’s largest economy and a land of immigrants, the United States (US) attracts people from all over the world who want to live, work and study here. International clients are an important market niche served by REALTORS®.
Since 2009, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has conducted an annual survey of its members to measure the volume of U.S. residential real estate transactions with international clients; collect information on the origin, destination and purchasing preferences of international customers; and identify the challenges and opportunities REALTORS® face when serving foreign clients.
The 2023 U.S. Residential Real Estate International Transactions Profile presents information on REALTOR® transactions with international clients who purchased and sold U.S. residential properties during the 12-month period April 2022 through March of 2023.
This report is based on an online survey that was conducted from April 3 to May 8, 2023. The survey was sent to 150,000 randomly selected REALTORS® and members of local associations, who also surveyed foreign buyers.1 To correct for over- and under-sampling at the state level, NAR weighted the distribution of responses to the distribution of NAR members by state as of May 2023. A total of 7,425 REALTORS® responded to the national market survey, of which 951 reported an International Residential Foreign Buyer. Information on international customer characteristics is based on respondents’ most recent closed transactions during the 12-month period.
The term international or foreign client refers to two types of clients:
- Nonresident Aliens (Type A): Non-US citizens with permanent residence outside the US.
- Resident Aliens (Type B): Non-US citizens who are recent immigrants (less than two years at the time of transaction) or non-immigrant visa holders who reside for more than six months in the US for professional reasons, educational or other. reasons.
The number of foreign buyers and the number of properties purchased are used interchangeably in this report under the assumption that a foreign buyer purchased a property.
Reflexes
- $53.3 billion – Dollar volume of residential purchases by foreign buyers during April 2022 to March 2023 (2.3% of $2.3 trillion existing home sales volume)
- 84,600 – Number of fforeign buyer purchases of existing homes during April 2022 to March 2023 (1.8% of 4.73 million existing home sales)
- 51% – Foreign buyers residing in the United States (recent immigrants; less than two years at time of transaction) or nonimmigrant visa holders (Type B)
- $396,400 – Foreign buyer average purchase price (compared to $384,200 for all existing homes sold in the US)
- 42% – Foreign buyers who paid all in cash (compared to 26% among all existing home buyers)
- fifty% – Foreign buyers who bought a property to use as a vacation home, rental or both (compared to 16% among all existing home buyers)
- 76% – Foreign buyers who bought a detached single-family house or a semi-detached house (compared to 89% of all existing home buyers)
- Four. Five% – Foreign buyers who bought in a suburban area
Main foreign buyers
- China (13% of foreign buyers, $13.6 billion)
- Mexico (11% of foreign buyers, $4.2 billion)
- Canada (10% of foreign buyers, $6.6 billion)
- India (7% of foreign buyers, $3.4 billion)
- Colombia (3% of foreign buyers, $0.9 billion)
Main destinations
- Florida (23%)
- California (12%)
- Texas (12%)
- North Carolina (4%)
- Arizona (4%)
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1 Oversampled survey responses from the Raleigh Regional Association of REALTORS®, Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®, Long Island Board of REALTORS®, Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS®, and Texas REALTORS® were added to the national random sample. The total set of responses was weighted by the distribution across states of NAR members with a primary specialization in residential real estate.
