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)

Aren't there a lot of recent homeowners in The Fortress from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore? (I know some from all of those places).

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.

I don't think that's accurate. It is not a choice between fancy dinners and swank cars or owning property; some people really prefer to own property that isn't overvalued and held at that overvaluation by government froth.

This is just non-empirical evidence, but it seems cities with lots of Chinese residents have high real estate prices. Look at Vancouver, Toronto, SF, and London. Could just be a coincidence though, as there are other cities with high real estate prices with a low Chinese population. The high prices come down to high demand,willingness to pay high prices, and lots of wealthy people.

Recently I have been to and surveyed house prices in Vancouver, Toronto, SF, LA and San Diego. The locals said there are lots of Chinese bring money into those cities. The Chinese have different motives, they don't care about returns (as an investment), they just want to move their money out of their countries and park them here. They will pay whatever the prices are, during bubble of down draft. See graphs on my post here http://patrick.net/?p=28783

So what do we think is going to happen in China soon?

This is just non-empirical evidence, but it seems cities with lots of Chinese residents have high real estate prices. Look at Vancouver, Toronto, SF, and London. Could just be a coincidence though, as there are other cities with high real estate prices with a low Chinese population. The high prices come down to high demand,willingness to pay high prices, and lots of wealthy people.

SF NYC etc etc ? Makes you wonder why so many "ChinaTown's" in the states are near slum conditions. Perhaps you should ask the HK chinese who came here pre-97 before the hand over to mainland...So why didnt prices skyrocket back then?

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.

So lets get this right!

You CAN TAKE MORE THAN $5,000 out of the China?

A degree from Chinese University and unkown foreign references gets you a Silicon Valley job immediately?

sybrib says

Aren’t there a lot of recent homeowners in The Fortress from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore? (I know some from all of those places).

Sure I know a few myself, many came here in the 60s and 70s. They still chatter in Chinese,
you think they came off the boat yesterday.

Well, for one thing:

http://apiproblemgambling.com/uploads/2009/09/08.1019.CasinosaBigDrawforLocalAsians.pdf

So I'm not sure where someone is getting the idea that all Asians/Chinese are somehow frugal. Not so.
Many are addicted to gambling.

Some of my neighbors are Asian and Indian and yes, they drive older cars (I do too - a 2000 luxury car), they also do not appear to be going for fashion at all. Except for the teens.

But the main thing is that the women have sacrificed beauty for property. I guess the male still gambles, whatever, however ends are met by the wife making the sacrifices.

In the SV, asians were big borrowers for Option ARMs. Many are in trouble now and will lose their home.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8634199