Some experts worried over foreign interests buying real estate
Chinese buyers are buying luxury homes across the country, and according to the Asian American Real Estate Association in Houston it's happening here as well. Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation isn't comfortable with the idea.
“These are mostly Communist party cadres or state owned companies making purchases. So we are in bed with the Communist party,” Scissors told KTRH.
Dan Ikenson of the Cato Institute disagrees with that assessment and says this can only help our slow economy.
“I think it’s a good thing. We’ve had depressed real estate values nationwide for the past several years,” Ikenson said. “If there’s growing demand, we shouldn’t pooh-pooh that demand.”
Some lawmakers support expanding visas for foreign interests if they invest a half million dollars in real estate and promise to pay taxes and live here.
So, are we giving our country away? Ikenson says we aren’t and that it just continues the trend that has been going on here for several decades.
“We’ll be much more internationalized. The demographics do point to a growing number of Latinos and Asians living in the United States,” Ikenson explained.
But Scissors says you're getting people coming over that are not truly committed to America.
“When you have an immigration policy of convenience, you don’t get people who love the country. I’m worried about in 25 years that we have a bunch of people that are not committed to American principles,” Scissors explained.
