patrick.net

www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/07/02-007.pdf

There are 11.5 million houses in California. Estimating them to be worth, say 100K each. Perhaps there are some investors from china coming in here, but I'm betting not enough to hold that out.

Everyone says, people move every 5-7 years, lets use 10 years. That is 1.15M homes per year?

1.15M X $100,000 each = $115,000,000,000

That is quiet a bit of money. Granted they wouldn't have to buy them all up, only enough to cause prices to go up. Maybe 10% of those houses? So 1,150,000,000 per year, and they could perhaps influence the housing here. Assuming houses cost 100K of course.

Welcome to Squanderville!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DvuyvuHmJI

The Chinese sovereign wealth fund with their hundreds of billions of USD is not interested in owning single family properties. That would make no sense.

As for private investors:

"...buying houses for their families and investing in factories and other facilities to be closer to the North American market.”

Chinese buying/opening up factories in the US? That's good to hear. Americans opening factories in China is the much, much, much more common news.

I highly doubt private Chinese investors have any impact on the US housing market, beyond what an immigrant from India or the UK or wherever would.

I don't think many chinese investors from China are affecting the market. Being a long range landlord would be hard. Plus, buying a California house on Chinese salary would be pretty tough.

Chinese immigrants living here, on the other hand, absolutely are. Go to an open house in Saratoga, Cupertino, Los Altos, and majority of the visitors will be Chinese or Indian. I think that these immigrants are willing to spend a higher percentage of income on owning than are people born in the US. So they'll give up the fancy car and drive a Camry, don't go out to expensive restaurants, then use that money to buy in the desired neighborhood and school district.

Some people really prefer to own property, which is obviously not the case for a lot of the patrick.net posters who enjoy other things more.

How Much RMB or Foreign Currency Can Be Physically Carried Out of or Into China?

According to the Administrative Rules of the People's Republic of China on Cross-Border Transportation of National Currency issued by China's central bank in December 2004, travelers are allowed to take up to US$5,000 equivalent of foreign currency and 20,000 yuan of local currency (US$1=7.7 yuan) into or out of the country.

There is no need to declare this to customs if the currency you carry is less than the limit.

Amounts up to US$10,000 will require a Permit for Taking Foreign Currency Out of the Customs Territory issued by a bank. Anyone who takes more foreign currency than US$10,000 is required to show a legal warrant issued by agencies of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE)

For travelers who leave the country a second time within 15 days, the limit of foreign currency is US$1,000. If you leave the country a second time on the same day, the limit is US$500. If you have a declaration record of foreign currency when entering the country, customs will examine this before authorizing you to pass.

It is quite easy to exchange your currency into CNY, Chinese yuan, at your arrival airport, as well as hotels and banks in China, so it is not really necessary to bring Chinese currency to China.

(China.org.cn March 23, 2007)