An article from the latimes.com trying to scare up some fear about the stock market woes this week, with a couple of good quotes about China:
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-socal-housing-20150829-story.html
An excerpt:
Tom Berge Jr., president of the West San Gabriel Valley Assn. of Realtors, has had a different experience. He said three or four Chinese business owners looking to invest in homes have raised concerns to him over economic turmoil in China. But it wasn’t because they might no longer be able to afford local real estate.
“Their fear is the government is going to limit the money that can freely move out of China,” he said.
Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, believes that slowing growth abroad won’t slow investment because Chinese residents will become more inclined to move money into what they consider a safe investment.
“If anything, this is only going to intensify the push to get money out of China,” he said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-socal-housing-20150829-story.html
I’d agree that if China starts swinging their bat any more, money will come rushing in over here. You can’t make money with your liquidity frozen or limited.
To expand more on that anecdote about some Chinese folks in one So Cal neighborhood buying middle-income rental properties and pouring tons of money refurbishing them, I got to talk to a woman who bought and refurbished two apartment buildings across the street from a rental property my friend owns.
She was standing in front of the buildings with a clipboard, and my friend and I went over and introduced ourselves. She was very pleasant, in her early thirties. She told us she had bought the properties. I said I was very impressed with how well she’d refurbished the building. It looked better than when it was built. First-rate work. She really brightened up when I said that. She’d refurbished every kitchen in every unit. They looked great. New roof. Professional landscapers. The works.
I asked her if she was intending to flip the properties. She said, “oh no! I’m keeping these apartments for the next 30 years! I want to buy more!” She has a property management group handling the rents.
She then asked us if we knew of any rental properties for sale. I said, “my friend here might!” My friend says, “no no no…” We shook hands and she went off on her merry way.
So, I say to my friend, “wouldn’t you consider selling to her, since she’s overpaying for properties like a maniac?” He says, “thanks to her, my property values just went up. If she’s staying, I’m staying.”