The U.S. may be losing its sheen as a second home for foreign nationals, as international buyers retreat from the U.S. housing market.
A report released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that international buyers purchased 67,100 existing homes from April 2025 through March 2026. That is a 14% decline from the previous 12-month period and the second-lowest total since NAR began tracking foreign purchases in 2009.
The value of those transactions fell even faster, dropping 19.1% from a year earlier.
“The decline in foreign home buyer activity mirrors the decline in international visitors and tourists to the United States,” NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said.
“Even a slightly weaker U.S. dollar over the past year, which provides more purchasing power for foreigners, did not induce more activity,” Yun said.
Why the retreat?
International buyers are confronting many of the same obstacles as Americans: high U.S. home prices, elevated mortgage rates and tight housing inventories in many markets.
But for international buyers, geopolitical uncertainty and shifting trade policies are adding to the hesitation, prompting some to adopt a wait-and-see approach to investing in U.S. real estate, the report found.
The NAR’s survey of real estate professionals found that among international clients who ultimately did not purchase a U.S. home, 19% cited immigration laws as the biggest barrier.
White House hails retreat of foreign buyers
The Trump administration hailed this retreat of foreign buyers, claiming that its immigration policies are helping Americans. This assertion, however, relies on contested claims.
A White House spokesman, Davis Ingle, told Straight Arrow that Biden administration policies “caused housing prices to soar as illegal aliens drove up housing demands that ultimately squeezed the supply.”
The Trump administration’s deportation policies, he said, are “freeing up the housing supply for American citizens, which is making it easier and more affordable for them to partake in the American dream of owning a home.”
While researchers have found evidence that immigration surges can raise U.S. housing prices, studies show that the price impact is modest.
For example, a March 2026 working paper by economists at the Dallas and San Francisco Federal Reserve banks found that the unprecedented boom in unauthorized immigration from early 2021 to early 2024 caused an 2.2% increase in local house prices and 1.4% increase in local rents.
But the economists also noted that immigrants in the U.S. without authorization may disproportionately work in the construction sector, and their work can help lower construction costs and prices in the longer term.
Yun told Straight Arrow that the retreat of foreign buyers, reflected in Wednesday’s report, will have a minimal impact on U.S. housing prices.
“Nonetheless, fewer foreign activity means lower housing demand,” he said.
US efforts to restrict foreign purchases
This pullback comes amid widespread Republican-led efforts to restrict foreign purchases of U.S. properties.
Eight states are currently considering 25 bills that would restrict foreign ownership in some way, according to an analysis by The Committee of 100, a non-partisan public policy organization. Meanwhile, Congress is considering 32 separate bills to curb foreign ownership.
Twenty-six states have passed 63 bills that restrict foreign property ownership. Eleven of those bills have been enacted so far in 2026, according to this analysis.
Foreign buyers shift their focus
Canada reclaimed its position as the largest source of foreign buyers, followed by Mexico.
China, which led the rankings a year earlier, fell to third place. But Chinese buyers — including those from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — continued to spend more than buyers from any other country.
Florida remained the most popular destination, attracting 20% of foreign buyers. Yun said these buyers are attracted to beaches and a favorable winter climate as well as prices.
“Due to a sizable increase in supply in the state over the past year, home values actually fell in 2026,” he said.
California was the second most popular state for foreign purchases, followed by Texas, New Jersey and Georgia.
New York, long a magnet for international real estate investment, did not crack the top five.
International demand for U.S. homes may be weakening, but it has not disappeared.
“Foreign buyers still recognize the long-term value of U.S. real estate,” Gitika Kaul, a Washington D.C.-area realtor and senior vice president at Compass, told Straight Arrow.
“But affordability and uncertainty are making them much more intentional about where and when they buy.”
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