IRVINE, CA—About 46% of Mandarin Chinese-speaking buyers who purchased US homes in the 17 months ending in May 2015 paid all-cash, up 229% from the 14% share paying all-cash in 2005. It was the largest increase of any language group, according to a study conducted by RealtyTrac and Ethnic Technologies, the global leader in digital multicultural marketing and analysis.

The joint study analyzed 10 million publicly-recorded residential property sales deeds in 2014 and 2015 compared to 2005 by ethnicity and native language spoken.

Among all language groups, the share of all-cash buyers of U.S. homes increased 65% from a 20 percent share in 2005 to a 33% share in the 17 months ending in May 2015.

“Cash buyers across the board are playing a much bigger role in the housing market now than they were 10 years ago, and that is particularly true for Chinese Mandarin-speaking cash buyers, who are more likely to be foreign nationals,” said Daren Blomquist vice president at RealtyTrac. “Foreign cash buyers have helped to accelerate US home price appreciation over the past few years given that these buyers are often not as constrained by income as local, traditionally financed buyers.

“Markets with a higher share of foreign cash buyers may expect to see a stronger upside in the short term given the continued global economic instability,” Blomquist continued. “But those markets are also more susceptible to a downside in the longer term when demand from foreign cash buyers dries up.” 

Mandarin Chinese speaker share of all buyers increases most of any language group Mandarin Chinese-speaking buyers also increased as a share of overall buyers more than any other language group between 2005 and 2015, up more than 9%.

“Asian, Hispanic and African American consumers are driving the substantial growth we are seeing in both real estate and marketing-centric markets,” said Zachary Wilhoit, CEO of Ethnic Technologies. "Just these three segments are about to be 50% of the U.S. market and already represent major market shares in the fastest growing Digital Market Space."

Ethnic Technologies is the global leader in multicultural marketing, digital applications, research, data enhancements and analysis. The Ethnicenter from Ethnic Technologies is the result of over 40 years of continuous multicultural, religious and language preference research.

“Annually since 2005, we have seen that destabilizing events around the world continue to increase the positioning for US real estate, particularly Southern California, as a safe harbor for investment, particularly cash,” said Mark Hughes, chief operating officer with First Team Real Estate, covering the Southern California market.  “Given the somewhat laid-back Chinese government attention to withdrawal limits we expect these funds to continue to be a driver of activity and bidding throughout this year.”

RealtyTrac is a leading provider of comprehensive U.S. housing and property data, including nationwide parcel-level records for more than 130 million U.S. properties. Detailed data attributes include property characteristics, tax assessor data, sales and mortgage deed records, distressed data, including default, foreclosure and auction status, and Automated Valuation Models (AVMs). Sourced from RealtyTrac subsidiary Homefacts.com, the company's proprietary national neighborhood-level database includes more than 50 key local and neighborhood level dynamics for residential properties, providing unrivaled pre-diligence capabilities and a parcel risk database for portfolio analysis.