Foreigners' Sweetener: Buy House, Get a Visa

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: wsj

The reeling housing market has come to this: To shore it up, two Senators are preparing to introduce a bipartisan bill Thursday that would give residence visas to foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy houses in the U.S.

The provision is part of a larger package of immigration measures, co-authored by Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), designed to spur more foreign investment in the U.S.

Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates.

WSJ's Nick Timiraos details a proposed plan in which foreigners who spend $500,000 in cash on U.S. real estate would be given visas.To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203752604576641421449460968.html?mod=e2fb

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Here is how you create a new housing bubble.... good lack

[hedgehog]

1. Will we give matching green cards to immigrants willing to

work as house maids and gardeners for those big houses?


Seriously - Residence and/or US Citizenship should not be for sale!

Not to mention - why should we be backing the value of mansions when there are so many other needs in this country today?

[robinlynne]

4. i'm with you.

[Mimosa]

5. ITA. n/t

[AlphaCentauri]

6. another way to bailout bank mortgages?

[Demeter]

2. That is insane

Of all the crazy ideas espoused in DC, this one has got to take the cake.

What is the benefit to the country?

[OhioChick]

26. More like bat shit insane n/t

[bluesbassman]

3. So I guess you're only illegal if you come here to work, but if you bring buckets of CASH...

you're A-OK with the rightwingers. :eyes:

[No Elephants]

15. Who says people who buy homes here won't also take jobs here?

Hi, Mr. and Mrs. American. We have good news and bad news.

The good news is that we finally found a buyer for that home you're so far under water on since they repealed Glass Steagall.

The bad news is that the buyer is also getting your job, so you join the ranks of America's unemployed.

Happy short sale to ya, though!

[jtuck004]

7. Watch out. These are banksters bringing in reinforcements to fight OWS. /nt

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Agree. Here come the Sauds.

[Muskypundit]

8. Against amnesty FOR ANY ILLEGALS. Except the rich ones.

I hate republicans for their hypocracy, and their hatred of the poor. If you dont have enough money to get to America, FUCK YOU.

No longer are we a "Give us your tired and poor huddled masses". We have given up on that America, now that everyone has forgotten how they came to be here.

But like everything else in this country, there is another set of rules for the rich. Its getting hard to miss.

[caseymoz]

10. Isn't the market SUPPOSED to correct to a price that people can afford?

I mean, eventually? I know I'm sounding like a conservative, here, but how does supporting housing prices with this gimmick help actual, current citizens of this country?

And if a person can afford a $500k house, and they need help with immigration, imagine what problems a person with a $3,000 a year has? And I hear that the immigration system in this country is a mess, that one reason that there are so many illegals is that getting "documented" legally is nearly impossible for low income people.

To Congress: shouldn't you be reforming immigration for everybody and finding homeless citizens homes instead of making more exceptions for the wealthy?

[No Elephants]

18. Problem is, the market did not create the housing bubble. Repeal of Glass Steagall

and failure to regulate crap mortgage derivative securities sensibly, plus greed and unscrupulous behavior, created the housing bubble.


IOW, the kleptocracy created the housing bubble, not a fair market. And the same factors in the kleptocracy that created the housing bubble caused increased joblessness around the globe. And those are some of the reasons that the "market correction" has been so severe. It was never a free market bubble to begin with.

[caseymoz]

28. Keynes demonstrated that prices in a collapsed market never fall fast enough

. . . to rescue the impoverished. People will die on the streets before houses reach a price where they could buy them, and that's always been true in a recession of almost any product you could name.

I'm sorry to say, the "fair market" does create bubbles. It also bribes and warps the government around it. If you're talking about a regulated market, that's different. Derivatives are the same thing as what used to be called a "bucket shop." That is, a gambling house set up to bet on the market's direction. Except derivatives are far more complicated and done on an industrial scale and the market itself dips into their proceeds.

[No Elephants]

35. I did not say a free market never creates a bubble. I said that a free market did not create this

particular bubble.

As far as helping the impoverished: I have a family member who worked himself to the bone until he could afford a down payment on a modest home. He was so touchingly proud to become an "owner," even though he had at least two mortgages and very little equity. Need I add, he bought at the top of the market, so he is vastly under water on his mortgages?

Then came both unemployment AND bursting of the real estate bubble. Jobless and paying scorching interest rates, he narrowly missed becoming homeless (Although his mom would have taken the three of them into her apartment in another state, his young son was heartbroken about the prospect of changing schools and his wife actually threatened to take his son and leave him if they lost the house. This is a decent man who loves his family. His stress levels could not have been higher.)

Then, he got two part time jobs. Although they are in different parts of the state and require killer commuting, he is thrilled, despite the lack of health insurance. And his wife, formerly a full time homemaker, got a minimum wage job. (Her English is not very good and she has no college education at all.)

But, they still can't refinance because her employer refuses to give her verification of employment.

And, their mortgage is recourse, so, even if they unload the home, they will have debt.

I am sure they are not alone.

My point is, there is more than one way to have been penalized by the housing bubble. Maybe those who were frozen out of the market were the lucky ones. I have a feeling my family member would rather he had been renting when he lost his job.

[MADem]

11. Gee, that's kinda Canadian!

I guess they're looking for more one percenters, to shore up their team....?

[pampango]

17. Canadians just like immigration period - no need to make immigrants buy houses.

CBC: Immigration support by Canadians at all-time high.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/20/pol-immigration-study.html

Support for immigration in Canada is at an all-time high, suggests a new study that tracked attitudes about newcomers to the country over the last 40 years. Not only has support for immigration stayed high, but it's surged in the past six years, at a time when such support has dropped in the U.S. and Europe.

The study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy found that Canadians think favourably of immigration despite recessions, terrorism and a changing political landscape over the years. In 2004, EKOS found 63 per cent of Canadians supported current or higher levels of immigration and by 2010, after a sharp recession, that number jumped to 67 per cent. The report also noted that Canadians in poorer parts of the country are the most likely to support immigration.

The attitude is unique in western countries and stems from two strong Canadian beliefs.

"On the economic side people believe that immigration is a boon to the economy... On the cultural side, we have this policy called multiculturalism that sort of became part of the Canadian identity and one of the points of pride distinguishing Canada from the U.S.," study author Jeffrey Reitz told the CBC's Louise Elliott.

[bloomington-lib]

22. That's good since there will probably be a whole lot of us moving up there at some point

in the future.

[MADem]

25. Not without a needed skill or a half a million bucks, you won't.

They aren't loving us these days--they can get people who whine less/work more and have more cash for their economy elsewhere.

And if you're old, like forty-ish and up old? Fuggedaboutit.

[MADem]

24. They like immigrants with SKILLS and MONEY. Not too old, either.

You can overcome the "old" thing if you are starting a business and will hire a bunch of Canadians. Oh, and no promises--you have to already HAVE the money and have bought the business. See? No wonder "Canadians in poorer parts of the country are the most likely to support immigration." They're hoping one of those immigrants will HIRE their asses!

Have a look at their "immie" policies. I said that the policy sounded Canadian for a specific reason--that's how Canada plays it; welcome, welcome, bring your needed skills or bring your cash.

If you're just some poor fat bastard who can't earn, they do not want you and you won't get in. The days of "Over the border to Canada" are over, and have been for a long time. The Vietnam War is a devil in the distant mist....!

[Lasher]

34. They're not so big on family reunification either, in contrast with US policy.

[No Elephants]

20. No, if it were Canadian, they'd become entitled to health care at some point.

[MADem]

23. The very rich in Canada don't need to worry about that--they come over the border to the USA

and pay for what they need.

It takes money, though.

[truthisfreedom]

12. Sounds like a bunch of successful offshore Scarfaces will be arriving.

We don't care where your money came from. Velcome to America!!!

[JDPriestly]

13. What a horrible idea. All we need is to bring in more of the most arrogant

from all over the world.

Worst idea yet.

[tomg]

14. And maybe they can tie it to some

Kind of jobs bill.so all of the wealthy from, say, china and India and other countries where we outsourced jobs can live here and the us government can ship our unemployed to work in foreign factories. Look at the national pride. We can start wearing clothes, buying iPads and having toys for our kids and we can once again say "made by Americans,"at the same time. Housing crisis and unemployment problem solved. Thanks Chuck. Thanks Mike. Your bipartisan efforts are so deeply appreciated.

[bloomington-lib]

16. Now the LEGAL one can sit on his porch and watch the ILLEGAL one mow his grass.

[No Elephants]

19. No such thing as a legal human being or an illegal human being. One has a visa, that's all.

[bloomington-lib]

21. yep

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. have money=we like you. come here because you are economically downtrodden

and you are our number one problem

[pitohui]

29. is that not true of every country in the world?

there are many nations that if i could afford to buy a house in that nation, i could have residency/citizenship if i were a rich woman

since i am poor i have to stay where i am to be legal, there is no country that would accept me as a resident

money is freedom of movement and always was, always will be, that's kind of why people want it

[La Lioness Priyanka]

31. yeah, you are right. its just still disgusting.

[Poll_Blind]

30. Well, if that's not considered outrageous I really don't know what is. nt

PB

[BlueIris]

32. I just heard about this on NPR. Sad. nt

[JCMach1]

33. I can already see the scams...

Relative in America sells house to another relative for 500K, then turns around and returns the cash after some months minus 'the real' price for the house.

[fasttense]

36. US residence visas up for sale. Let's start the bidding.

I'm sure several members of the Mexican drug cartels will appreciate the Senate's kind consideration.