In San Francisco a lot of Chinese are buying homes and paying all cash. These are all million dollar plus homes. Many times they never move in but just hold on to the vacant homes. I guess this is an investment in case they have to flee to a safe haven from where ever they live.
I wonder then why they are choosing the most prohibitively expensive city in the U.S. to purchase a home, especially if it is going to be vacant most of the time.