Chinese Investment in U.S. Real Estate Slows

Lillian Chen and Jacob Gu of Bloombergreport that real estate transactions with Chinese buyers for American real estate has fallen for the first time since 2011. The drop appears to be the result of the Chinese government's intervention to "control capital flight." A report from the National Association of Realtors found that the number of properties purchased by Chinese buyers fell year-over-year from 29,195 to 34,327 units.

While the buying spree from China has slowed somehow, "our report still shows the dominance of Chinese buyers compared with other international buyers, " [Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors group and lead author of the report] said in the interview. "China is expanding by above 6 percent in its economy. It is not a spectacular growth but still far better than many other countries, and hence they have more millionaires to further support the U.S. property market. "

Chinese ranked first among international buyers, spending three times as much as those from Canada, who came in second place, with $8.9 billion in acquisitions.