June 26, 2026
Home Alone 2: Cash Grab
Foreign funds help make housing unaffordable: research
Commenters say the real scandal isn’t just foreign cash — it’s cities refusing to build
TLDR: A new study says foreign investment helped raise U.S. home prices, but it also says the bigger problem is many cities didn’t build enough housing to keep up. Commenters were split between “obvious” eye-rolling and anger that local rules, not just foreign buyers, are what keep homes out of reach.
America’s housing panic just got a fresh villain, but the comment section was absolutely not shocked. The research says foreign money helped push home prices higher in neighborhoods with lots of overseas buyers, especially after other countries started taxing foreign home purchases and investors turned to the U.S. But readers instantly hit back with a giant collective “well, duh.” One top reaction basically shrugged, calling it the most obvious revelation ever: “This just in, water is wet.” Ouch.
That’s where the real drama kicked off. A big chunk of the community argued the headline was missing the main point. Their take: yes, outside money matters, but the bigger scandal is that cities haven’t built enough homes since the 2008 crash. The research itself backs some of that up — in places like San Francisco, prices shoot up and building barely moves, while Charlotte adds more homes when demand rises. Commenters seized on that contrast like a courtroom exhibit, saying local zoning, permits, and political choices are the true puppet masters.
Then came the darker, juicier angle: money laundering. One commenter called U.S. housing’s greatest feature exactly that, linking to a report from Global Witness. Others widened the scope beyond foreign buyers entirely, pointing to cities like London as proof that when global wealth floods in, ordinary people get priced out and neighborhoods start feeling like luxury safety deposit boxes. The vibe? Less “surprising study” and more everybody already knew the game was rigged — they’re just fighting over who rigged it most.
Key Points
- •The article says average U.S. home prices rose 60% from 2019 to 2025, citing the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
- •Research by Caitlin Gorback finds that foreign investment in the 2010s contributed to higher housing prices in U.S. areas with greater concentrations of buyers from outside the country.
- •In a 2011–2018 analysis with Benjamin Keys, neighborhoods with more foreign-born residents had housing prices averaging 6.7% higher than other neighborhoods in the same city, while supply grew only 1%.
- •From 2009 to 2018, U.S. housing supply responded weakly to price increases, with only a 0.26% rise in supply for every 1% nationwide increase in housing prices.
- •The study found wide differences across 100 large U.S. cities, with San Francisco showing very low supply elasticity and Baltimore ranking as the most elastic market after permitting reforms.