Should foreigner investors be banned from buying homes in the usa?

wallyj84

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When I say foreigners, I mean people who don't live in the USA. People who are permanent residents or have valid green cards are not foreigners for the sake of this discussion.

The housing crisis is a big deal and part of what is driving costs so high is the influence of foreign buyers. People from Asia and other parts of the world are looking for a place to park their money and see the US housing market as a great investment. For example, I read an article recently that claimed as much as 25% of the homes in California are bought by foreign investors.

Do you think foreign buyers are pushing normal Americans and residents out of the market? Do you think a banning foreign would have a significant affect on home prices?
 
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Yes.

My biggest problem with the immigration policies are how we can turn a blind eye and bend the rules for "foreign investors", but we put average people that take all they have into a shot at immigrating through untold bullshit, to deter them.
 

wallyj84

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Yes.

My biggest problem with the immigration policies are how we can turn a blind eye and bend the rules for "foreign investors", but we put average people that take all they have into a shot at immigrating through untold bullshit, to deter them.

I don't want to turn this into a debate about immigration, but I completely agree. There are always different rules for the rich and the poor.

I am very surprised in this era of nationalism that no one is talking about banning foreign investors in the US. I think that just goes to show the real purpose of the anti-immigrant policies the US right now. It isn't about helping normal Americans it's just a political theater designed to rile up their base.

Coming from an Australian, yes.

We’re currently having our land being bought from underneath us by China. It’s a disaster.

It is happening in a lot of Western countries. Has there been any talk of stopping this kind of thing in Australia?
 

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The housing crisis is just another symptom of the massive monetary expansion we did past the crisis in 2009.
What else should foreigners do with all the dollar, if not reinvest in the USA? The only other option would be to exchange it in other currencies... the last time someone did it was the end of Bretton-Woods agreement.

If you exclude foreigners from the house market you will start to notice other problems showing up short after.
 

wallyj84

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The housing crisis is just another symptom of the massive monetary expansion we did past the crisis in 2009.
What else should foreigners do with all the dollar, if not reinvest in the USA? The only other option would be to exchange it in other currencies... the last time someone did it was the end of Bretton-Woods agreement.

If you exclude foreigners from the house market you will start to notice other problems showing up short after.

What other problems do you think would come about?
 

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I don't think that foreign investors should be banned in any country, however perhaps there should be conditions applied to their investments that provide a benefit for the host nation.

For example, perhaps they could be discouraged from buying up city properties (causing a price hike) with high "foreign investor" taxes but offer them low or no taxes for investing in housing programs that will house the people who need it.

Money flooding in is always welcome and makes the country wealthier overall.
 

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When I say foreigners, I mean people who don't live in the USA. People who are permanent residents or have valid green cards are not foreigners for the sake of this discussion.

The housing crisis is a big deal and part of what is driving costs so high is the influence of foreign buyers. People from Asia and other parts of the world are looking for a place to park their money and see the US housing market as a great investment. For example, I read an article recently that claimed as much as 25% of the homes in California are bought by foreign investors.

Do you think foreign buyers are pushing normal Americans and residents out of the market? Do you think a banning foreign would have a significant affect on home prices?
The housing crisis is just another symptom of the massive monetary expansion we did past the crisis in 2009.
What else should foreigners do with all the dollar, if not reinvest in the USA? The only other option would be to exchange it in other currencies... the last time someone did it was the end of Bretton-Woods agreement.

If you exclude foreigners from the house market you will start to notice other problems showing up short after.
As he explains, being foreigner didn't drive house prices up, it was deregulation. At those times anybody without a stable income would buy a house.
 
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Snakebyte

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I don't want to turn this into a debate about immigration, but I completely agree. There are always different rules for the rich and the poor.
That's quite natural because they are completely different things and you shouldn't mix them up. One thing is an investment which brings money, the other thing potentially only costs money. In a capitalist world it's obvious what you want and what you don't want.
Talking about foreign investors, I guess they resell or rent out the properties they acquire? Since you were talking about people who are no residents, I'd wonder if they didn't. Genuine question if there actually is a difference between renting a house or apartment from a US citizen or a Chinese for example.
In other words to me it doesn't seem that foreign investors are the problem.
 

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It is happening in a lot of Western countries. Has there been any talk of stopping this kind of thing in Australia?

There’s definitely been talk. But it’s kinda hard when all the major parties continue to rely on them for business deals
 
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wallyj84

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Good luck with closing the housing market to foreign investment. I own my home and will sell it to anyone I please to sell it to.

We both know that you can't really sell your house to whoever you want. For example you can't discriminate when selling your home. All I'm proposing is something similar to what the Philipines does in that owning land in the US should be restricted to people actually living here.


That's quite natural because they are completely different things and you shouldn't mix them up. One thing is an investment which brings money, the other thing potentially only costs money. In a capitalist world it's obvious what you want and what you don't want.
Talking about foreign investors, I guess they resell or rent out the properties they acquire? Since you were talking about people who are no residents, I'd wonder if they didn't. Genuine question if there actually is a difference between renting a house or apartment from a US citizen or a Chinese for example.
In other words to me it doesn't seem that foreign investors are the problem.

The problem is that foreign buyers drive up prices to levels that the local population couldn't sustain by themselves. Making home ownership and even renting not possible for now income residents and even difficult for upper class residents.
 
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sudcalifornio

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We both know that you can't really sell your house to whoever you want. For example you can't discriminate when selling your home. All I'm proposing is something similar to what the Philipines does in that owning land in the US should be restricted to people actually living here.




The problem is that foreign buyers drive up prices to levels that the local population couldn't sustain by themselves. Making home ownership and even renting not possible for now income residents and even difficult for upper class residents.
Where do you get this kind of information?
Do you know the demographics of owners?
 

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As he explains, being foreigner didn't drive house prices up, it was deregulation. At those times anybody without a stable income would buy a house.
Deregulation was another problem...

But he didn't talked about foreigners in general, but only about those who don't live in the USA. They can afford a house anyway, even without deregulation.
 
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twoton

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Are foreign investors in US real estate subject to all of the rules and regulations that domestic investors are subject to?

Do they pay the same in taxes?
 
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The housing crisis is just another symptom of the massive monetary expansion we did past the crisis in 2009.
What else should foreigners do with all the dollar, if not reinvest in the USA? The only other option would be to exchange it in other currencies... the last time someone did it was the end of Bretton-Woods agreement.

If you exclude foreigners from the house market you will start to notice other problems showing up short after.
Yes. It's a bad idea - start distorting the market and all sorts of problems follow.

There must be another way to tackle it?
 

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Mexican law, does not allow for foreigners to own real estate property in certain areas . I think on the ocean coast and part of the Mexican borders.

No I did not make this up :cool:
 
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wallyj84

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Where do you get this kind of information?
Do you know the demographics of owners?

There is a lot of information on this. Some of it contradictory. Here is one article: Chinese investors are inflating housing markets in the US, Canada, and Australia
Here is another: Data dig: Are foreign investors driving up real estate in your California neighborhood? | CALmatters

There isn't a lot information out there, but there is some and a lot of it points to foreign investment causing a big spike in prices.


Are foreign investors in US real estate subject to all of the rules and regulations that domestic investors are subject to?

Do they pay the same in taxes?

Yes. I Believe so. But that isn't the problem. The problem is that they might be causing prices to rise too high for citizens to enter the housing market.
 

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I have heard/read about instances where there are entire floors of buildings that are owned by "foreigners" from China, Russia and the Middle East that are dark at night and sit empty and in some cases for years where is seems the purchase was nothing more than obvious "money parking" often after "money laundering"

If you are a billionaire in Russia or China and you buy half of Trump tower then that is something that Putin or Xie can not "seize" after he sends you off to the gulag

I remember reading that by the 90's something like half of the commercial real estate in the greater Miami area was owned by someone almost all foreigners who were one way or another involved in the drug trade.

They needed to have something to spend all that money on.
 

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Are foreign investors in US real estate subject to all of the rules and regulations that domestic investors are subject to?

Do they pay the same in taxes?

Yes. As property owners, they have to pay the same real state taxes, etc.

I see no problem with foreign investors buying real estate. I remember many years ago the concerns over Japanese investors buying up Manhattan real estate. The Janpanese are no longer the major foreign investors. Besides, real estate goes up and down, as we all know, so they are vulnerable to the same market conditions as everyone else.