Viet Nam is among the top ten countries buying US residential real estate, according to an annual survey of residential purchases from international buyers released earlier this week by the US National Association of Realtors (NAR).
NAR’s 2017 Profile of International Activity in US Residential Real Estate found that Viet Nam ranks ninth, accounting for 2 per cent of the reported purchases by foreign buyers of residential properties in the US between April 2016 and March 2017.
The report revealed that foreign buyers and recent immigrants purchased a total US$153 billion of residential property, jumping 49 per cent over the previous 12-month period and surpassing the previous record of $103.9 billion in 2015 to set a new high.
Overall, 284,455 US properties were bought by foreign buyers, up 32 per cent from 2016. This figure accounted for 5 per cent of existing home sales.
Foreign buyers paid an average of $302,290, a 9 per cent increase from the median sales price in the 2016 survey and above the sales price of all existing homes sold during the same period which was at $235,792.
Vietnamese buyers were estimated to spend $2-3 billion buying US residential properties during the period.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a news release published online “The political an economic uncertainty both here and abroad did not deter foreigners from exponentially ramping up their purchases of US property over the past year. While the strengthening of the US dollar in relation to other currencies and steadfast home-price growth made buying a home more expensive in many areas, foreigners increasingly acted on their beliefs that the US is a safe and secure place to live, work and invest.”
Buyers from China exceeded all countries by dollar volume of sales at $31.7 billion, which was up from last year’s survey ($27.3 billion). Chinese buyers also purchased the most housing units for the third consecutive year (40,572, up from 29,195 in 2016), according to the report.
Rounding out the top five were Canada ($19.0 billion), the United Kingdom ($9.5 billion), Mexico ($9.3 billion) and India ($7.8 billion).
Florida, California and Texas remained the top destinations for foreigners, accounting for nearly half of all foreign sales. — VNS