While many people are wondering whether or not we’re nearing the peak in this economic cycle, foreign 
investment in U.S. real estate is still proceeding at a very brisk pace. According to Real Capital Analytics, foreign investors bought more than $91 billion in U.S. real estate in 2015, which was more than double the amount they purchased in 2014.
Foreign investors oftentimes have a very unique
perspective on U.S. real estate. During the last economic
downturn, many domestic real estate investors stopped
buying USA real estate altogether. They were thinking that prices would continue getting lower, and they were also very concerned about our economy. So they waited until they believed the time was right to re-enter the market and begin buying once again. But foreign investors during that time period were instead comparing the United States’ economy to other economies from around the world, and they decided that the United States was the best place for them to invest their money. So they began buying a lot of U.S. real estate at the bottom of the market, and their continued investment in our real estate has been accelerating even more since then.
How much has foreign investment in U.S. real estate been accelerating since back then? Well in 2009 the total amount of foreign purchases of U.S. real estate totaled to approximately $6 billion, and as was mentioned earlier in this article, in 2015 it then became more than $91 billion. So clearly foreign investors see the United States as being a solid place to be investing their money.
In addition, foreign purchases of U.S. real estate haven’t been slowing down in 2016. Foreign investors are still finding the U.S. to be a solid place for investing their money, and this has been evidenced by Anbang Insurance Group’s $6.5 billion purchase of Strategic Resorts & Hotels, in addition to their $14 billion offer to purchase Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Anbang’s $6.5 billion purchase of Strategic Resorts & Hotels gave The Blackstone Group an almost immediate $500 million profit, as Blackstone had just purchased the same company for $6 billion.
With this in mind, Canadian investors have had a penchant for buying U.S. real estate in recent years, too. Their demand is expected to continue to be strong, as they still have a lot of available investment capital, and finding good opportunities within their own domestic market is becoming more difficult. In addition, other areas that are expected to represent a steady, continued flow of real estate investment capital into the U.S. include Europe, Korea, and Singapore, and the behemoth itself, China.
So this gives us an idea of how attractive foreign investors are still finding our real estate right now here in the United States. But how long will this trend be continuing on for? Nobody can say for sure, but as long as our economy here in the U.S. continues to outperform many other countries around the world, our real estate will continue to look better to these foreign investors than alternative real estate investments that they could purchase in other countries.