Foreign investment in U.S. residential real estate surged to $56 billion from April 2024 to March 2025, marking the highest growth since 2017 and representing 2.5% of overall existing-home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Chinese buyers remained the largest group of foreign investors, purchasing approximately 11,700 homes valued at $13.7 billion, nearly doubling their purchases from the previous year with an 83% increase in spending. Most of these transactions were all-cash, with California accounting for 36% of Chinese acquisitions. Chinese buyers represented 15% of all foreign home purchases, followed by Canada at 14% and Mexico at 8%. The surge in foreign demand comes amid a challenging U.S. housing market marked by affordability issues for American buyers, with individual homebuyers increasingly locked out of the market. Some analysts note that Chinese investors are accelerating purchases ahead of new anti-money laundering regulations set to take effect in December 2025. The influx of foreign capital into U.S. real estate has raised concerns among some policymakers about national security and housing availability for Americans.