S.F. becomes most sought-after location for Chinese buyers

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 23, 2015 | By Emily Landes

[Jolla]

Yep, actually it is quite a nice home thank you, and for retirement will move from a 4 bedroom near the beach to a two bedroom in the midwest, sell for $1million buy for $100,000 that will be a good bit smaller but yes, this will be funding retirement.

[rdcbn]

Sorry, no offense.

I'm sure your house is very nice.

It's just that a nice 4 bedroom house on acreage in an area with no congestion, traffic jams, taxes, astronomical cost of living, and seriously weird people is a major step up in quality of life, no matter how nice the house you left behind in the Bay Area.

At least that was my experience.

Just get out before Obama kills the one time exemption of capitol gains on a home sale.

[skeeter]

Wealthy chinese investors have been driving up the cost of housing in the Bay Area for decades.

[entropy12]

Sorry to disagree. I actually know a few Chinese people. They feel exploited based on hours, working conditions, pay and profits made by their employers.

[ladyjane]

A real estate lawyer was telling me she was thinking about learning Chinese so she could understand her clients at closings.

And they don’t all come to closings. Many just buy the property sight unseen.

[aquila48]

You don’t have to go to China to find workers (and non-workers) with envy grievances - we have plenty of them here - or haven’t you noticed?

Please tell me who’s holding a gun to their heads for putting up with whatever working conditions they’re putting up with, and if it’s so bad why they don’t go back to whatever they were doing before?

[entropy12]

There are no food stamps in China.
There are no unemployment checks either.

So it must be their stomachs holding guns to their heads!
The stomachs must be yelling...go to work! I am starving and want food!

[aquila48]

What were their stomachs telling them before they took those jobs?

[entropy12]

Take any job which will buy enough food. I have known 3 different women who got paid barely above 1000 yuan a month. Just enough to buy food and meager shelter.

[aquila48]

That means it was better than what they had - I call that progress.

And like it’s happened in Japan Taiwan S Korea and many other places they will continue to improve.

I’ve been in China several times and each time things were better - more cars on the road (too many) people well dressed and smiling, more and better housing, in other words tremendous progress and they are just getting started.

Sure not everyone is there yet but considering where they were they’ve come a long way. Comparing them to the US is a ridiculous comparison - comparing them to where they were 20 years ago is the right comparison.