last week on Chinese buyer activity in Seattle. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut according to the company\u2019s analysis of its data, foreign buyers\u2019 interest in Seattle\u2019s housing market didn\u2019t spike at all after the introduction of the tax.<\/p>\n
Researchers first analyzed visits to homes nationwide listed for sale on Zillow.com from both China and Brazil throughout 2016.<\/p>\n
Knowing that many Chinese buyers do invest in Seattle, Zillow chose Brazil as a control group, as the groups of home shoppers are similar in size within their respective countries. Many Brazilians focus their home search in Florida which also made it a good choice, according to Zillow.<\/p>\n
From its data, Zillow found there was no increase in the number of Chinese shoppers in the US market in the weeks after the foreign buyer tax was implemented. Instead, the trend remained steady for both Chinese and Brazilian shoppers visiting for-sale homes across the globe.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear what kind of housing Chinese buyers are targeting in Seattle but upon doing research with real estate agents, Gudell says Chinese buyers don\u2019t usually settle for conventional homes in most markets.<\/p>\n
“They tend to be interested in new construction and more often at the higher-end of the price range,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Zillow also analyzed the number of site visits to homes listed for sale from shoppers in China and Canada in the state of Washington.<\/p>\n
In the months after the Vancouver tax took effect, the number of Chinese visitors to Washington State home listings actually grew slower than the number of Canadian visitors, adding to Zillow\u2019s argument that the Vancouver tax had no effect on Chinese traffic to Seattle.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this year, the Chinese government began \u00a0<\/span>cracking down on currency exchange<\/span><\/a>, enforcing a yearly conversion limit of $50,000 USD and adding stricter rules where proof is needed for what the funds will be used for.<\/span><\/p>\nIn its report, Zillow notes they haven\u2019t seen any evidence of these new regulations impacting Chinese home shopping behaviours in Seattle but Gudell says it\u2019s more likely to have an effect than the influence of Vancouver\u2019s foreign buyer tax.<\/p>\n
“There could potentially be a future impact there and I do think that the potential impact there is larger than a potential impact from the Vancouver tax but we haven’t seen any meaningful shifts quite yet,\u201d says Gudell.<\/p>\n
![\"Seattle](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4499817502_0a687af41f_o.jpg\")
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