Chinese Seeking Housing Bargains — in California

Real estate speculators from China are looking for bargains in, of all places, Southern California — because housing there is actually cheaper than in major Chinese cities.

These bargain hunters from mainland China make up the newest Chinese exports to the U.S. — landlords, according to National Public Radio.

Home values in the cosmopolitan cities of Beijing and Shanghai haven’t slipped as much as they have in California. So cash-rich Chinese are buying tour-group packages that include trips aboard luxury buses destined for developments with unsold new homes or significant numbers of foreclosed houses.

NPR followed one group of Chinese looking at new homes in Corona, Calif., a suburb about 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Many want to buy properties to rent to Americans.

A Chinese lawyer named Ying looked at a home with a $400,000 price tag and said, “In Beijing, a house like this, this far away from the city center, wouldn’t be as cheap as this house.â€