“Foreign investors are scooping up properties.”
I recently saw an article that said Berkshire Hathaway is actively selling USA real estate to wealthy Chinese. You probably saw it as well.
I take this to mean that too many Americans that would like to buy simply cannot.
Your comment is probably mostly true. It’s fairly well known that Berkshire and many other funds bought bundles of US properties in the 2008-2011 area to hold for rentals. That was a huge business at the time. Those properties certainly no longer make as much sense to buy-for-rental and they have appreciated nicely since that time. Meanwhile, the Chinese are predominantly cash buyers who do not value real estate quite in the conventional sense. So it’s an opportune time to sell.
I recall when I was working as a realtor, circa 2007, there were quite literally no small multi-family properties one could buy in my (expensive, SF Bay) area because foreign buyers would bid them up and overpay for them. Such properties would routinely be bid up to the point where they were guaranteed money-losers; but they may have become OK to own by now since rents have skyed. As many Chinese are and were looking to get their money out of China, their choice is/was to overpay or risk losing most or all of it.
This is not the only factor, housing remains in high demand in high-employment areas, but it is a definite factor.
A good friend of mine’s 90 year old mother has lived in Queens for over 60 years. The Chinese have come in and bought up a lot of homes. They are very small homes and the Chinese go door to door offering to pay double in cash! Her Mom does not want to sell and she and a few other older people are all that’s left on her street.