Top 5 states where foreign buyers are scooping up U.S. real estate | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The waters of the United States’ residential real estate market are getting choppier.

Homebuyers continue to stare down high mortgage rates while a growing number of sellers, already sitting on historic levels of equity, are beginning to delist their properties with inventory levels rising for 20 consecutive months and asking prices going unmet in markets around the country.

Amid the uncertainty, however, new data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) this week showed an uptick in the annual volume of residential property purchases by international buyers for the first time since 2018.

In fact, foreign buyers accounted for $56 billion in sales from April 2024 to March 2025, a 33.2% increase from the prior 12-month period.

Home for sale sign in West Palm Beach, Florida.

GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Foreign-bought purchases still represent a small percentage of the U.S. housing market

After seven straight years of decline, the volume of existing-home purchases by international buyers rose from 54,300 to 78,100, or the equivalent of 1.9% of existing-home sales in the United States.

Still, the mark comes in significantly lower than pre-pandemic highs, which most recently peaked in 2017 at 284,500 foreign purchases.

Of those 78,100 purchases between last April and this March, 44% came from buyers who live abroad.

As NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun put it, “Foreign buyers are drawn to investing in American real estate, in part, by our country’s strong protection of private property rights.”

So, what are they buying and where are they from?

According to the NAR’s 2025 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report, China (15%) and Canada (14%) were the top two countries of origin by percentage share, nearing doubling up the next closest, Mexico (8%).

It was the highest share for both countries in a decade and their fourth year-over-year increase in the last five years.

These buyers also paid all cash at a much higher rate (47% to 28%), and on higher-priced homes ($494,400 median price to $408,500), compared to all buyers.

The same held true for intended use, as 47% of foreign buyers planned to utilize properties as vacation and/or rental homes compared to only 16% of total buyers.

Florida remains the No. 1 hot spot for international buyers

As has been the case for at least 15 years, according to Yun, the Sunshine State accounted for 21% of residential transactions by foreigners between April 2024 and March 2025.

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Rounding out the top five rankings over that period were California (15%), Texas (10%), New York (7%) and Arizona (5%).

California’s 4% upswing was the largest this year, catapulting it back into second place after finishing third behind Texas a year ago.

New York’s 3% jolt also pushed it firmly into the top five, marking its highest percentage of foreign buyers since at least 2010.

Weather and seasonality undoubtedly play a role in decision making, too. Per the report, approximately half of buyers from Canada (48%) and the United Kingdom (45%) bought in Florida, with a bigger affinity for townhomes and condos compared to their non-U.S. peers.