- Foreign buyers find U.S. homes cheaper due to a weaker dollar, Redfin reports.
- Russian buyers benefit most, with home prices 9.6% cheaper in rubles this year.
- Chinese, Australian and Indian buyers face higher costs; foreign sales remain below 2%.
SALT LAKE CITY — The cost of a home in the U.S. continues to creep up. But due to the declining value of the U.S. dollar, the price tag for some foreign buyers is considerably less than what they would have paid a year ago.
In U.S. dollars, the median price of a typical American home reached a record $447,035 in June, an increase of 1%. But looking at the cost in Russian, Japanese or European currencies, that same home is about 5% to nearly 10% cheaper this year.
Russians paying with rubles are likely to see the best deals, according to a Redfin analysis posted July 24. The cost of that median home in rubles is 9.6% less than last year, thanks to the Russian currency maintaining the most strength against the U.S. dollar.
For Swiss and Swedish buyers with francs and kronor, respectively, the price tag dropped 8%, while Japanese buyers with yen saw nearly the same decline, 7.6%. Using euros, the currency in place for much of Europe, reduced the price 5.6%, while paying in British pounds cut it by 5.3%.
But not every international buyer is better off right now, Redfin, a Seattle-based online brokerage, found.
Covering the cost of that typical American home with Chinese yuan would take 0.1% more this year. Spending Australian dollars? That'll cost 3.2% more than last year, while paying with Indian rupees adds 4%.
America's neighbors to the north and south also would have to come up with more money. In Canadian dollars, that median home price increases 0.9% from last year, nearly as much as the U.S. increase. In Mexican pesos, that increase is much bigger, 5.7%.
Foreign buyers purchased less than 2% of the more than 4 million existing homes sold in the U.S. from April 2024 through March 2025, according to a 2025 National Association of Realtors report on international transactions in U.S. residential real estate.
China accounted for the highest share, 15% of the $56 billion total, followed by Canada, Mexico, India and the UK, the report said. Florida saw the most international sales at 21%. Other top destinations for buyers from out of the country were California, Texas, New York and Arizona.
More foreign money may be headed to America's real estate market, Redfin's head of economic research, Chen Zhao, suggested in the post.
"Some foreign buyers may be considering stepping back into the market now because their currencies have gained ground against the dollar," Zhao said. "Their money simply goes further than it did a year ago. It's like getting a discount that domestic buyers can't access."
By the end of June, the U.S. dollar was off to its worst start since the end of the gold standard in 1971, down more than 10% when measured with the currencies of the country's major trading partners, The New York Times reported.
The slide comes as President Donald Trump's economic policies, including proposed tariffs on imported goods that have changed repeatedly and escalating friction with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over cutting interest rates, have sparked financial uncertainty.
