China now the No. 1 foreign buyer of US properties

Chinese buyers spent $28.6 billion last year, dominating Canadian investors for the first time

Chinese investors are well known to be major players in the New York real estate market. But now they have expanded their influence on a national scale, officially surpassing Canadians as the largest foreign buyers of homes in the U.S.

The Chinese made up 16 percent of all international buyers, a 12 percent increase from 2013, according to National Association of Realtors Data Cited By The Wall Street Journal. The majority of purchases were single-family homes and condominiums.

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Meanwhile, Canadians made up just 14 percent of international buyers, a 23 percent drop from 2013. Mexicans were the third largest foreign consumers of U.S. properties, making up 9 percent of the market.

In terms of dollar volume, the Chinese are also dominant. Buyers from China spent $28.6 billion on U.S. properties in the year ending in March 2015 — compared to $11.2 billion spent by Canadians.[WSJ]Christopher Cameron