Chinese invest in US homes

A group of 40 Chinese investors is looking to place money in the US housing market, CNN's Emily Chang reports.

At the Beijing Airport, 40 Chinese investors embark on a mission to open their wallets on the other side of the world and buy a house in the United States.

“The price's right,” says lawyer Yin Guohua. For him, it will be a home away from home, a place to stay on business and quite simply an opportunity to get a deal.

“It sounds cheap,” says this business woman, “but I’ll have to see it with my own eyes.”

Their journey will take them on a tour of bargain and foreclosure properties from L.A. to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston and New York. Yin says he’s been watching the US Housing market for two years. He’s willing to spend up to a million dollars and pay it all at once.

“This could be a positive stimulus for the American economy,” he says. He’s a family man who already owns 3 properties in Beijing.

“Our son will have a place to stay when he goes to America for school some day,” his wife says.

The house hunting trip is being run by a Chinese real estate brokerage, Soufun.com. The company says it received hundreds of applications for just 40 spots from Chinese eager to invest overseas, but it raised questions: Are the Chinese capitalizing on the misfortune of Americans in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and is this the start of a dangerous flow of capital out of China when China's own economy is slowing down?

“It is still a very, very small fraction of the purchasing power here in China. So I don't think, you know, er, this, er, you know, small group of people, because of their personal interest or their, for whatever reason is going to affect the China's demand for properties.”

Foreigners can buy property in the US under fairly simple guidelines, they may have to make a bigger down payment or pay more taxes. And investment experts say China's restrictions on transferring money out of the country are relatively easy to navigate.

Yin has his eyes on a few homes in New York and L.A., but like any smart investor, he says he won't make a deal unless it's a good one.

Emily Chang, CNN, Beijing.

Vocabulary:

1. embark on: begin or start (a piece of work, etc.)著手，從事
2. bargain: something you buy cheaply or for less than its usual price廉價貨
3. foreclosure: A situation in which a homeowner is unable to make principal and/or interest payments on his or her mortgage, so the lender, be it a bank or building society, can seize and sell the property as stipulated in the terms of the mortgage contract. 抵押品贖回權的喪失
4. brokerage: a business, firm, or company whose business is to act as a broker經紀人(或中間人)業務
5. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: an ongoing financial crisis characterized by contracted liquidity in global credit markets and banking systems.次貸危機
6. purchasing power: The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy.購買力
7. down payment: A type of payment made in cash during the onset of the purchase of an expensive good/service.首付