Foreign Buyers Spend $11B Less on U.S. Homes, NAR Finds

Foreign Buyers Spent $11 Billion Less on U.S. Homes as Purchases Hit 17-Year Low, NAR Finds

Foreign buyers pulled back sharply from the U.S. housing market over the past year, closing on fewer homes and spending billions of dollars less than the year before, as high prices and tight inventory cooled international demand. From April 2025 through March 2026, international buyers closed on 67,100 existing U.S. homes, down 14% year over year and the second-lowest transaction count since 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2025 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report.

That cohort of buyers invested $45.3 billion in U.S. homes over the 12-month period, a 19% decline, or $11 billion less, than the previous year. Despite the shrinking volume, international buyers continued to pay a premium over domestic buyers: their median purchase price was $465,000, compared with the national median of $413,600 for all buyers.

“The decline in foreign home buyer activity mirrors the decline in international visitors and tourists to the United States,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Even a slightly weaker U.S. dollar over the past year, which provides more purchasing power for foreigners, did not induce more activity.” NAR ties the trend to broader immigration patterns, noting that U.S. Census Bureau data show the country added just 1.26 million residents through international immigration between July 2024 and July 2025.

Canada reclaimed the top spot as the leading country of origin for foreign buyers, accounting for 16% of international transactions, followed by Mexico at 14%. China, last year’s leader by transaction count, fell to third place at 11%, followed by India (9%) and the United Kingdom (4%). Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina and Spain also registered meaningful activity. Even with fewer transactions, Chinese nationals spent the most of any nationality — $7.6 billion in total, reflecting an average purchase price near $1 million — though that figure fell sharply from $13.7 billion the year before.

NAR’s report defines “foreign” or “international” buyers to include both foreign nationals living abroad and non-U.S. citizens who are recent immigrants of less than two years or visa holders living in the U.S. More than half of purchase dollars, 56% worth $21.8 billion, involved recent immigrants or U.S.-based visa holders, while buyers living abroad accounted for the remaining $23.5 billion.

Florida again commanded the largest share of foreign buyer activity, drawing 20% of international purchases; within that group, nearly half were Canadian and close to a third came from Latin America. California held its position as the second-most-popular destination, capturing a 19% share, up from 15% the year before.

The findings track with metro-level data emerging from South Florida. Miami-Dade foreign buyer volume reached $3.2 billion in 2025, up from $2.3 billion in 2024, according to Miami Association of Realtors figures cited in reporting on the NAR data. Miami-based agent Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami, described the recovery in Canadian buying activity in the first half of 2026 as a “cyclical wobble inside a structurally strengthening market,” pointing to Florida’s lack of state income tax, warm climate and direct flight access as durable draws for Canadian snowbirds.

What it means: The 19% drop in international spending is a verified year-over-year comparison from NAR’s annual survey and represents the clearest national gauge of foreign buyer activity, though it is self-reported survey data rather than a transaction-by-transaction census. The characterization of the decline as tied to weaker international tourism and immigration is Yun’s attributed analysis, not an independently confirmed causal finding. Florida and California’s continued dominance as buyer destinations is consistent with prior years’ NAR data and reinforces those states’ position as the primary gateways for international housing capital.

What to watch: Whether Canadian buying activity, described locally as recovering in early 2026, continues to rebound in Sunbelt markets even as national foreign-buyer volume overall trends lower, and whether next year’s NAR report shows the decline stabilizing or deepening.