When Florida real estate agent Angel Calzadilla received an email a few weeks ago from a man who said he was a Chinese executive and wanted to buy a house, he suspected a scam. “I thought it was fishy,” said Mr. Calzadilla, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, where Chinese buyers are a rarity.

    The executive was real. He hired a lawyer, transferred $750,000 into a trust account for the purchase and is now searching, with Mr. Calzadilla’s help, for a four-bedroom house in the range of $500,000 to $1 million.

    Agents and industry executives around the United States are reporting similar experiences. Chinese buyers, once a novelty in many areas, are growing increasingly common and heralding what some believe -- and many hope -- may be an important new buying group.

    In the depths of the financial downturn early last year, several groups of investors from mainland China toured properties around the United States, setting off a wave of media coverage.

    The U.S. real estate industry hoped that the trips were an early indication that a wave of Chinese buyers was on its way. So far at least, the Chinese have mostly been Lookie Lous -- checking out properties but not buying.

    “These buyers are very cautious right now,” said Kelvin Wong, owner of Resource Real Estate Services, which is based outside of Los Angeles. “They are coming over and taking a look at what is going on to be prepared for when the opportunity comes.”

    Several factors are fueling the optimism. Thanks to China’s fast-growing economy, its population of millionaires is now the fourth-largest in the world. Prices in many parts of the United States dropped 25 percent to 35 percent last year, but it is the secure, established nature of the U.S. residential sector that is particularly attractive to Chinese investors. “They come to the U.S. not for the huge profit but for the stabilized market,” said Kenneth Li, an agent with Century 21 in Texas who deals with many Chinese buyers.

    In many ways, the interest in U.S. property is part of a general economic shift. Direct investment by Chinese companies in the United States grew to $1.2 billion in 2008 from $385 million in 2002, a 220 percent increase, according to government data.

    John Wu, president of the Chinese American Real Estate Professionals Association in San Gabriel, California, said that buyers are not looking for ostentatious properties but for houses that can be easily rented or resold. “They really buy houses with more flexibility,” said Mr. Wu. “They understand the market.”

    Source: The New York Times

    中国人赴美买房很谨慎

    佛罗里达州的地产代理商安琪·卡兹迪拉几周以前收到一封电子邮件，一名自称是中国高管的男子说想买房子。当时卡兹迪拉怀疑这是个骗局，因为他所在的劳德尔堡，中国买主十分罕见。

    然而，那个高管是真的。他雇律师转了75万美元到信托账户里，想让卡兹迪拉帮他购买一套50万至100万美元之间的4居室。

    全美的房地产代理商和行业主管都在报告类似的事。曾经在许多领域鲜见的中国买主正变得越来越普遍。预示着——许多人希望如此——中国买主或将成为重要的新购买群体。

    去年早些时候经济衰退，几个中国大陆来的看房团把美国的房地产看了一圈，引发了媒体报道热潮。

    美国地产业许多人希望，那是中国买家浪潮即将到来的早期迹象。然而，至少到目前为止，这些中国人大多只看不买。

    “如今这些买主中很多人都很谨慎”，加州洛杉矶附近一家地产公司的老板凯文·王说，“他们来这里察看情况，为机会到来时做好准备。”

    有几个因素支持这种乐观主义。由于中国快速发展的经济，其百万富翁人数目前在全世界位列第四。美国许多地区去年房地产价格跌了25%至35%，但美国地产业最吸引中国投资者的还是其安全的特性。休斯敦的地产代理商肯尼思·李表示：“他们到美国来不是为了巨额利润，而是看中了稳定的市场。”

    从许多方面来看，对美国房产的兴趣是总体经济转移的一部分。政府数据显示，中国公司在美直接投资从2002年的3.85亿美元增长至2008年的12亿。

    加州美中房地产职业协会会长约翰·吴说，（中国）买房人并不找那些炫耀扎眼的房子，而是那些容易出租或再卖掉的房子，“他们买房更灵活了，他们了解这里的市场。”