Chinese spend $12.3b on real estate in US  

中国人在美置宅套均42.5万美元 房价中位数居第一

美国全国房地产经纪人协会(NAR)最新公布的数据显示，过去一年中国买家购买美国地产近123亿美元，仅次于加拿大人，但房价中位数42.5万美元却远远高于其他外国买家居首位，近七成中国购房者直接支付现金。[查看全文]

(CNS) -- Chinese buyers spent nearly $12.3 billion on real estate in the United States in the 12 months ending in March 2013, and the median price of their purchases was $425,000, highest among other foreign buyers in the US, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Cable News Network (CNN), citing figures from NAR, said in a report that the dollar volume of purchases by international buyers from 68 countries and areas is estimated at $68.2 billion.

Canada, China, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom remain the major sources of foreign buyers, it said, and 23 percent of those purchasers are Canadian, and 12 percent are Chinese.

The United States is considered by international buyers an ideal place for investment and children's education, it added.

Chinese buyers tended to purchase property in the upper price ranges, with a median price of $425,000, much higher than $183,000 for Canadian buyers. And nearly 70 percent of Chinese paid in cash.

Jonathan Miller, a real estate evaluator in New York, said many more Chinese buyers came in the past year.

In California, more than half the homes sold to foreign buyers went to Chinese nationals, the CNN report said.

Sally Forster Jones, a real estate agent in Los Angeles, said that Chinese buyers have purchased many high-priced houses in west Los Angeles, and many of her clients are rich entrepreneurs or real estate tycoons, many of whom live in the US less than half the time.

"Most clients buy houses for their children who study here," she added.

Many of the Chinese are using home purchases and the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program to get in the fast lane toward getting a green card. The program requires foreigners to invest at least $500,000 in a business that will create or sustain at least 10 jobs.