Why are so many able to afford cash offers for million dollar + homes in Southern California?

Just for reference so I don’t get accused of being an entitled millennial. Gen Z and finally bought a home in California in a sketchy but liveable area and it took us over a decade to afford it. Our jobs don’t allow us to leave here without taking a massive pay cut so moving to Texas or Ohio won’t fly.

Typo.

Meant “ Gen X”

I’m old

It kind of sounds like you're blaming other people for your poor financial planning.

You bought a house you couldn't afford and can't sell so you can't move to a lower cost of living area? Sounds like a personal problem.

It is a good question to ask how so many cash offers can be made on houses all over the country.

My conspiracy side says it’s china’s way of taking over the United States. It’s not with tanks & soldiers but to buy it with cash.

iamconfused wrote:

My conspiracy side says it’s china’s way of taking over the United States. It’s not with tanks & soldiers but to buy it with cash.

Yep.

Chinese are the biggest capitalists I have seen. Just look at Hongkong or Singapore. When Chinese get let loose they get ahead anywhere. I just watched this the other day about Zambia and I am not surprised.

X-Runner wrote:

It is a good question to ask how so many cash offers can be made on houses all over the country.

Hedgefonds buying houses in a dozen and rent them out again to the suckers who lost their homes. Unhinged capitalism. That's what most of you vote for in the last 40 years.

live in the worst part of CA wrote:

It IS a lot of cash coming from mainland China. Are they just all amazing savers or is there some way they get vast sums of cash transferred over somehow?

Cashing out stock options from you tech guys?

Irvine home prices are insane but realtors say people will pay any price, no questions asked if they like the home.

This has been going on for a decade and it’s not some fake bubble that’s going to burst as many predicted.

"...realtors say people will pay any price, no questions asked if they like the home."

Bullsh*t. People don't become rich by being morons.

My uninformed personal opinion is that when people talk about cash offers they are typically referring to any subject free offers.

But just because something is subject free doesn’t mean it is a true cash offer. It often just means the buyer has been pre-approved for the mortgage so they didn’t make the offer subject to financing.

A true cash offer is when the money is literally in the person bank account. Even these don’t necessarily mean they are not financed, as people may have drawn the funds from heloc to make the offer.

It's like you dumb basses have never heard of real estate appreciation or inheritance.

When my grandmother died in Fremont she left her home to my mom which was paid off and sold for $1.6Mn. My mom used SOME of that money to pay "all-cash" for a couple homes in Texas for my do-nothing tweaker siblings so she could stop supporting them.

It's not hedgefunds. If you owned a house over the last 15 years in most areas of California you are now a millionaire. Congratulations.

live in the worst part of CA wrote:

Just for reference so I don’t get accused of being an entitled millennial. Gen Z and finally bought a home in California in a sketchy but liveable area and it took us over a decade to afford it. Our jobs don’t allow us to leave here without taking a massive pay cut so moving to Texas or Ohio won’t fly.

Yes, you can leave and take a massive pay cut if you've invested and realize that the cost of living in Texas and Ohio are not what it's like to live in the Liberal Country of California. How can you not realize that?

Backpacker wrote:

iamconfused wrote:

My conspiracy side says it’s china’s way of taking over the United States. It’s not with tanks & soldiers but to buy it with cash.

Yep.

Chinese are the biggest capitalists I have seen. Just look at Hongkong or Singapore. When Chinese get let loose they get ahead anywhere. I just watched this the other day about Zambia and I am not surprised.

Lots of fear mongering here. China's per capita GDP is something like $13K a year. The vast majority of that country is a 3rd world sh!thole.

Only the BEST and the BRIGHTEST people make it to Los Angeles. It's warm and sunny except for 15 days per year in So Cal. The weather made the greatest athlete in world history, Kobe Bryant.

KOBE is the GREATEST in World History wrote:

Only the BEST and the BRIGHTEST people make it to Los Angeles. It's warm and sunny except for 15 days per year in So Cal. The weather made the greatest athlete in world history, Kobe Bryant.

As far as I remember the weather took Kobe Bryant's life.

Never fly into the clouds with a helicopter!

fear factor wrote:

Lots of fear mongering here. China's per capita GDP is something like $13K a year. The vast majority of that country is a 3rd world sh!thole.

GDP per capita translated to US $ means absolutely nothing.

If you just look at the Billionaires class, there are already more of them in Asia than in North America.

There is joke about selling products so cheap that profit margins are small, but the company makes it up on volume. Well, we Americans keep buying huge amounts of cheap products from companies in China that are subsidized by their communist government. People there save that money then buy real estate in the USA so eventually the Chinese will own and control this country. It's a twisted version of adverse possession, multi generations in the making.

live in the worst part of CA wrote:

It IS a lot of cash coming from mainland China. Are they just all amazing savers or is there some way they get vast sums of cash transferred over somehow?

Do you have a link proving it was cash from China?

We live in a $1.3 million dollar home that is one mile from a top surf beach in California. Two homes were sold this year in all cash deals. Both homes were sold within a week. Neither homebuyer is Chinese. They are white Americans who used cash. One said they sold two homes (one theirs and one inherited), and other said, "I just sold some funds."

I have made more than enough money in funds to buy my own home in cash, even ignoring the nearly $1 million in equity in our house.

Just because people can come up with $1 million in cash does not make them Chinese.

Some high real estate value east coast suburbs experienced a phenomenon of Chinese cash buyers, buy a house larger than any personal need, park wife and kid away from CCP. Hedging political risk.

If I recall, around 2016, near me, this process cooled off somewhat.

I personally observed the uptick in middle aged Chinese women walking in the neighborhood, usually alone, often limited English.

More than one real estate agent remarked at the time that houses in a certain area of town were going for crazy amounts, as in nothing to support the valuations, all cash, and those offers were coming from Chinese people. It was an area of a few blocks. Couple blocks away, it was still a strong market, but there was no runaway increase. It is all the same schools, same zip code, etc.

At this time, there is an informal Chinese running group in town. I have no idea if any Chinese speaker who was not Chinese would be welcome.

BTW, cash offer means buyer just transfers funds (not literal greenbacks) at the time of close, no mortgage. If you have some other way to borrow, you can do that, but it has nothing to do with the real estate deal. The money goes in a trust account of some kind (lawyer or title company) and a representative hands certified checks around at the closing table.

fear factor wrote:

Backpacker wrote:

[quote]iamconfused wrote:

My conspiracy side says it’s china’s way of taking over the United States. It’s not with tanks & soldiers but to buy it with cash.

Lots of fear mongering here. China's per capita GDP is something like $13K a year. The vast majority of that country is a 3rd world sh!thole.

You must've read Trump's book, "Replace your fear with white trashiness."