Modern Land Grab: Foreigners U.S. Real Estate Buys

The Big Picture ^ | July 28, 2011 | Barry Ritholtz

[DManA]

Why should I care?

[RitaOK]

Been going on for decades. No one seems to care. No candidate has ever bothered to notice, and frankly the people pick other battles, like naming post offices. They don’t care either. I think we know we’re done and missed the bus actually.

[Wayne07]

The main reason you should care is that it is a symptom of the dollar being devalued. US real estate has gotten a lot cheaper in the last couple years. The hosing bubble pop compounded with the weak dollar. In the old days, many americans retired abroad because their savings went further in less expensive countries. Now we are the cheap country...

[Oratam]

Interesting graphs. Thanks fer postin’.

[DManA]

True and I agree. The headline should be “Federal Policies impoverish Americans”.

[Wayne07]

exactly!

[NeverForgetBataan]

The house next to me is for sale.

I wish two red hot Russian lesbians would buy it. I wish they would look like the chicks in that TV commercial with the billionaire and the mini Giraffe.

My grandpa used to say you can wish in one hand and sh!t in the other and see which one fills up faster.

[Guyin4Os]

So? They can’t take it with them.

[gunsequalfreedom]

Tell ‘em to come and get it. Buy, buy, buy! The market needs buyers to raise home prices, dry up the inventory of new and barely lived in homes to create a market for brand new homes so we can start building again.

[gunsequalfreedom]

The main reason you should care is that it is a symptom of the dollar being devalued. US real estate has gotten a lot cheaper in the last couple years. The hosing bubble pop compounded with the weak dollar. In the old days, many americans retired abroad because their savings went further in less expensive countries. Now we are the cheap country...

That does not explain why we should care. You've only explained the what. Why should I care?

[gunsequalfreedom]

True and I agree. The headline should be “Federal Policies impoverish Americans”.

The headline should read, "Americans Get What They Vote For."

[antceecee]

Because they know it’s a good deal and it isn’t going anywhere.
Remember this happening with Japanese buying in the 80’s and 90’s ... Funny, they couldn’t take it with them.
Let them buy. It helps the market. Let them put money into our economy. It builds us up.

[Wayne07]

It is a wealth transfer from you to foreigners. Your savings are worth less, and theirs is worth more. It is a massive wealth redistribution.

[count-your-change]

That’s how the U.S. pays for what it imports, selling corn and condos to foreigners.

[Cronos]

I'm a bit torn on this -- on the one hand, foreigners buying up property (even 7%) means that land is being owned by non-Americans. Yet those lands are still American, they can't become Japanese etc.

And also, I'm going to take a guess that the foreigners have actually lost money (just like the Japanese lost money on all the firms they bought in the 80s).

[Cronos]

yet, that comes in cycles — as more people pump in money into the US, the dollar should go up again, right? Of course this hinges on whether we manage to balance our debt.

[Cronos]

Corn, condos and paper IOUs. In the case of the latter two, they’re going down in value. I’m pretty sure many of the foreigners have lost money — but then I haven’t studied this and am not an economist in any case

[Wayne07]

Hopefully!

[AmericanInTokyo]

As long as Obama is in office, AND if he is reelected, they are going to get BURNED! (Course, they may have a 10 year, 20 year strategy based on the Republic cleaning out this crap, in which case there WILL be an economic recovery)....so, remains to be seen I guess.