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Asian buyers scoop up 'bargain' million-dollar Bay Area homes
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 9/28/13 | Pete Carey

Posted on 09/28/2013 9:58:32 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

The continuing influx of well-heeled homebuyers from Asia has Bay Area real estate firms competing for a lucrative and growing slice of the region's residential market. "It has gotten big enough to where people are starting to pay attention to it," said James Yang, an agent with the Sereno Group.

One Palo Alto real estate broker, Ken de Leon, bought a Mercedes-Benz van that seats 14 and is using it for tours of Palo Alto and Los Altos with a Mandarin-speaking agent.

Palo Alto has become a point of interest for many mainland Chinese shopping for a second home or planning to move to the area...people are cashing in on gains from a run-up in real estate values in China over the past decade.

On a recent weekend, the van passed the home of Steve Jobs and the garage where David Packard and William Hewlett founded HP. Each time the van passed a school a second de Leon agent called out its Academic Performance Index score. The tour ended at a home in Los Altos Hills listed at $3.998 million...a week later, it had drawn three offers.

De Leon said he has sold at least 20 homes to buyers from China in the past year, usually in the $1.5 million to $2.5 million range. Roughly half are buying as an investment, a third are buying because of the area's highly rated schools and one-fifth are buying second homes.

"Compared to Asian prices, Palo Alto is considered pretty dirt cheap," said Kenny Weng Kong Lo, general manager of Intero Real Estate Services' Hong Kong office.

Intero agent Jinny Ahn: "People are cashing out their property and moving money to the United States. Three (million) to $4 million is considered not that expensive."

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; US: California
KEYWORDS: bayarea; california; china; housing; property; sanfrancisco; siliconvalley
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To: Hot Tabasco

“And as a side note, I have yet to come across an Asian owned property that wasn’t immaculately maintained, “

Haven’t been to China have you.


41 posted on 09/28/2013 2:25:07 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto
And their children and grandchildren will be prosperous, hard-working, and successful American citizens that consistently vote Democrat

That's certainly a contradiction in statements. Show us where the successful Asian population here in the U.S. are primarily supporters of the Democrap party.........

42 posted on 09/28/2013 2:26:15 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto
I go by the cold hard facts and they fact is a large majority of Asians, immigrant or not, consistently vote Democrat.

Then I would certainly like to see empirical evidence of that claim........

43 posted on 09/28/2013 2:28:59 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: driftdiver
Haven’t been to China have you.

Mainland China? Who's talking about China bro, were talking about here in the United States.....

Please, don't go off on a tangent, try to stay on topic.

44 posted on 09/28/2013 2:35:37 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Are you serious? California invented the real-estate bubble in the 80s! Where were you?


45 posted on 09/28/2013 2:41:54 PM PDT by antidisestablishment (Mahound delenda est)
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To: sunrise_sunset
Yes, and if you work for a Chinese person you are not allowed to say their first name, same usually with rentals. It’s Ms. this or that.

LOL! Where the heck did you come up with that????? The Karate Kid?......"Mr. Miogi"

46 posted on 09/28/2013 2:44:37 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: driftdiver
I couldn’t care less about creating a “a level playing field”. I want America to be the best and screw you and anyone else what wants to help other countries steal what we have.

Well SCREW YOU TOO for being too ignorant to realize that no country is stealing anything from the U.S. that isn't ultimately benefiting us in either technology or lower prices for products provided.......

If I didn't know better, I'd think you're a union supporter.........I'll check it out.

47 posted on 09/28/2013 2:53:25 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

If just half of them are coming to get away from communism that is a plus. Too bad the sellers don’t switch countries too.


48 posted on 09/28/2013 2:59:55 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (If global warming exists I hope it is strong enough to reverse the Big Government snowball)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“I guess it was naive to think that all the money we send to China wouldn’t be recycled back to the US. It was bad enough that the Chinese bought up so much of our profligate government’s debt, but it seems worse to have them use all the money we sent them over decades to snatch up our properties and drive our housing prices way beyond the stratosphere.”

That’s only half the story; there is no “next generation” of Americans to buy the homes these Red Chinese are moving into. As with the Mexican “replacement Americans”, I suspect these Red Chinese are mostly moving into dying states.


49 posted on 09/28/2013 4:27:06 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (The talking heads have admitted is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Hot Tabasco

Unions supporter, ha.

Free trade = globalism


50 posted on 09/28/2013 4:37:14 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

Too bad they’ll bring their penchant for corruption and support for communism with them.


51 posted on 09/28/2013 4:38:30 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto

That same protectionist argument has been going on for at least 500 years.

England under Henry VIII couldn’t compete with the cloth manufacturers in the Netherlands, so he passed protectionist laws that required the peasants to wear wool hats made in England.

The Luddites couldn’t compete against machines, so they rioted and burned factories. Machines by the way really are slave labor.

English farmers couldn’t compete against American farmers, so they passed more protectionist laws and they went further in the hole.

None of those laws get you anywhere. In the end you lose anyway.

Japan did not pay their workers well post WWII. They were hungry and they worked cheap; and an open society? Right. Sure it was.

The Zenith factory didn’t shut down and reopen in Japan. Why should they? There was already and Sony factory there and a Toyota plant. Those steel foundry jobs disappeared, so did the manufacturing jobs, and the people bitched about it then just like you are now.

The answer is do it better, find something else to do, or start a war and win it (and don’t give away the win with a Marshall plan). Root, hog, or die.

So, you’re either ignorant just another Union shill.


52 posted on 09/28/2013 4:41:26 PM PDT by seowulf ("If you write a whole line of zeroes, it's still---nothing"...Kira Alexandrovna Argounova)
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To: dragnet2
Foreigners, Asians, Muslims etc., have been buying all the fast food franchises, greedymarts etc... All this while the American private sector middle class gets economically gang banged by government.

What you said BUMP.
If you are a straight, white, taxpaying, traditional family man in the US, the Democrats have a target on your back.

53 posted on 09/28/2013 4:45:31 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: driftdiver
Free trade = globalism = Union mantra.......
54 posted on 09/28/2013 5:05:44 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Ms. Muffett suffered from arachnophobia)
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To: Lancey Howard

Yep..

BTW, I got a kick out of your “Hate crime hoaxes”...

I’ve seen that kind of thing close up...If they can’t find any hate/racism, just make some up and run with it.


55 posted on 09/28/2013 5:22:05 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Hot Tabasco

come back when you have a real argument


56 posted on 09/28/2013 5:24:52 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Count of Monte Fisto
Our jobs were sent to Red China so now we are poor and Red China is rich.

You think China is rich? ROFL.

57 posted on 09/28/2013 5:36:17 PM PDT by Teacher317 (Obama is failing faster than I can lower my expectations.)
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To: seowulf
Where did the Japanese get their money in the 80's if not by selling cheap electronics and cars to America in the 70's?

Japan has been #2 or #3 in GDP for the past 5 decades. You think the only money in the world is in America?

58 posted on 09/28/2013 5:38:54 PM PDT by Teacher317 (Obama is failing faster than I can lower my expectations.)
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To: driftdiver
Too bad they’ll bring their penchant for corruption and support for communism with them.

The first, sadly, yes. The second, no. Most successful Chinese hate the Communist leadership as much as anyone else does... but the business elite know that membership has its privileges, and as long as it is the easiest way to gain and maintain wealth, only foolish businesspeople fail to pretend to want to belong. You might as well whine about large corporations who use lobbyists and political donations to gain an advantage. It's just how things are done when your government has too much power... as most do today.

59 posted on 09/28/2013 5:44:20 PM PDT by Teacher317 (Obama is failing faster than I can lower my expectations.)
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To: GeronL

“Public schools are public schools, no matter where they are located.”

You don’t know the school, the curriculum, or my kids, yet for some reason you are compelled to spout nonsense about them. By “good” I mean as good or better than private or home-schooled kids. You really aren’t capable of commenting on the specifics, so please spare me your comments about my daughter’s education.


60 posted on 09/29/2013 5:53:04 AM PDT by Owl558 (Those who remember George Santayana are doomed to repeat him)
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