Every spring, the National Association of REALTORS® releases its Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate — and every spring, most local agents skim the headline and move on. That would be a mistake this year.
The 2025 report, covering April 2024 through March 2025, reveals that foreign buyers purchased $56 billion worth of U.S. residential real estate — 78,100 properties — during the survey period. More striking than the volume is the profile of those buyers: nearly half paid all cash, their median purchase price was $494,400 (21% above the U.S. median of $408,500), and they are concentrated in states that share one thing with Virginia — strong economic fundamentals, a large immigrant population, and a reputation for quality of life at a reasonable cost.
I've spent 21 years in Central Virginia real estate. I've watched our region draw buyers from Northern Virginia, New York, Ohio, and Florida. What I'm paying close attention to now is the next wave: internationally-connected buyers who are discovering that the same reasons Americans move here — affordability, natural beauty, genuine community — resonate just as powerfully with people who've spent decades building wealth in the U.S. and are now looking to plant roots or plant capital somewhere that makes sense.
Let me break down what this report actually says, and what it means for buyers and sellers in our corner of Virginia.
The National Picture: $56 Billion and a 9% Rebound
Foreign buyer activity dropped sharply in 2023 and early 2024, squeezed by the same high mortgage rates and tight inventory that frustrated domestic buyers. The 2025 report marks a meaningful recovery. Volume climbed back toward levels last seen before the rate shock, and agent sentiment — measured by NAR member surveys — shifted noticeably positive.
The headline statistics are worth knowing cold, because your sellers and buyers will ask about them:
- Total volume: $56 billion (up from $42 billion the prior year)
- Properties purchased: 78,100 homes
- All-cash rate: 47% of foreign buyers vs. 28% of all U.S. buyers
- Median price: $494,400 for foreign buyers vs. $408,500 U.S. median
- Top buyer country: China (by dollar volume, $13.4 billion)
- Top destination state: Florida (#1), California (#2, rising), Texas (#3)
Virginia doesn't crack the top five destination states in this report — and that's actually part of the opportunity. The markets absorbing the most foreign capital (South Florida, Los Angeles, New York) are also the most competitive and the most expensive. Virginia offers something those markets don't: price points where foreign capital translates into genuine value, not just a fraction of what the same money buys elsewhere.
Understanding the Two Types of Foreign Buyers
The NAR report distinguishes between two buyer profiles, and this distinction is critical for Central Virginia agents to understand:
Type A — Non-Resident Foreigners are citizens of other countries who live outside the United States. They're purchasing U.S. real estate as a foreign investment: for wealth preservation, for children's education, or as a vacation property. They typically wire funds internationally, may need an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) rather than a Social Security number, and face FIRPTA withholding requirements on any eventual sale. These buyers skew toward gateway markets — Miami, Los Angeles, New York — where brand recognition is strong and resale liquidity is high.
Type B — Resident Foreigners are non-U.S. citizens who are recent immigrants (within two years of their purchase) or non-immigrant visa holders — H-1B workers, L-1 transferees, students on OPT, researchers on J-1 visas — who have been living in the U.S. for more than six months. They have U.S. credit histories in formation. They may be eligible for conventional financing. They're buying primary residences and putting down roots. This is the buyer most likely to be active in Central Virginia.
The distinction matters because the strategies for reaching and serving each type are different. A Type B buyer from Lynchburg's Indian community who works in technology and is buying her first home needs a skilled agent, not an international property specialist. A Type A Chinese buyer purchasing lakefront property sight-unseen as a store of value needs a very different set of competencies. Both are real opportunities, and both exist in our market.
Who's Buying — The Top Nationalities and What They Want
China led all foreign buyer nations by dollar volume — $13.4 billion — with a median purchase price of $759,600 and an average that exceeded $1.17 million. Fully 71% of Chinese buyers paid all cash. They are primarily purchasing for wealth preservation, children's education at U.S. universities, and long-term appreciation. California dominates their destination preferences, but Virginia's proximity to D.C., its well-regarded university system, and its relative affordability make it a secondary target, particularly in Northern Virginia's tech corridor.
Canada ranked second by volume at $6.2 billion. Canadian buyers are the quintessential vacation-home purchaser: 49% buy for vacation use, they strongly prefer waterfront and resort properties, and 57% pay all cash. For Central Virginia agents, the Canadian buyer profile maps almost perfectly onto Smith Mountain Lake. Canadians are familiar with lakefront living. They understand waterfront property values. And the U.S. dollar's recent relative strength means Virginia lake property represents exceptional value compared to Ontario cottage country or British Columbia waterfront.
India has become one of the most strategically important buyer nations — and the one most overlooked by local agents. Indian buyers are purchasing at a pace that makes them one of the top five foreign buyer groups by property count, and their preferences align remarkably well with the Central Virginia market:
- 66% purchase as a primary residence — the highest primary-residence rate of any foreign buyer nationality
- Nearly 60% prefer suburban locations — which describes Lynchburg, Forest, and Bedford County exactly
- Most likely to use mortgage financing — making them the foreign buyer group most similar to a domestic buyer in their transaction process
- Strongly value school district quality — Bedford County and Forest schools are a genuine selling point
Mexico ranked among the top five by volume, with buyers strongly preferring primary residences and occasionally residential land. The United Kingdom, Germany, and Colombia round out the picture, with UK buyers showing a notably high all-cash rate (61%) and a preference for investment or vacation properties.
The pattern that emerges is clear: the buyers most relevant to Central Virginia are Indian, Canadian, and Mexican — nationalities oriented toward primary residences, suburban locations, good schools, and value. These are not speculators. They are families and professionals making permanent decisions.
The All-Cash Advantage — What This Means If You're Selling
Let's dwell on this number: 47% of foreign buyers paid all cash last year. The national all-cash rate for U.S. buyers is 28%. That gap matters more than most sellers realize.
An all-cash offer eliminates the three biggest risks in any financed transaction: the appraisal contingency, the financing contingency, and the lender timeline. When a buyer pays cash:
- There is no appraisal contingency — if the buyer loves the home at your asking price, that price doesn't get challenged by a lender's appraiser
- There is no financing contingency — the deal doesn't collapse because underwriting found an issue three weeks before closing
- Closing can happen in 14 to 21 days rather than the 45 to 60 days typical of financed purchases
In practical terms, a slightly-below-asking all-cash offer can be more valuable than a full-price financed offer with contingencies. The certainty is worth money.
What does this mean strategically? If you're selling a home in our market, having an agent who actively markets to internationally-connected buyer pools — through professional networks, global listing platforms, and relationships with agents serving immigrant communities in Northern Virginia and beyond — is a genuine competitive advantage. It's not a gimmick. It's access to a buyer pool that closes at higher rates, faster, and with more certainty.
When I list a property, particularly at higher price points or with features that appeal to international buyers — waterfront access, large land parcels, proximity to universities — I think deliberately about which buyer pools should see it beyond the MLS. The NAR data tells us that thinking that way pays off.
Virginia's Position — Why This State Is a Growing International Buyer Target
Virginia's draw for internationally-connected buyers is stronger than most people realize, and it's grounded in fundamentals rather than fashion.
The state consistently ranks among the top five nationally for business environment, driven by its educated workforce, strong university system, mid-Atlantic location, and pro-business tax structure. Nearly 13% of Virginia's total population is foreign-born — a percentage that reflects decades of immigration driven by the federal government, the defense industry, and major technology employers in the Northern Virginia corridor. Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington, 50+ aerospace and defense companies in the region, and the world's highest concentration of data centers have attracted a professional immigrant workforce that is, by definition, building wealth in Virginia.
Here's the pattern I watch for Central Virginia: a family arrives in Northern Virginia on an H-1B visa. They spend 15 to 20 years in Fairfax or Loudoun County, build substantial equity, become citizens or permanent residents, and eventually ask a question familiar to anyone who has paid NoVA prices for two decades — what if we moved somewhere more affordable? Central Virginia is one of the answers they find. The same quality-of-life appeal, the same natural beauty, a fraction of the cost. And they often arrive with enough equity to buy here in cash.
Virginia was explicitly identified in this year's NAR report as a top destination for foreign buyers from China and Mexico, and the state's immigrant-dense professional economy creates a self-reinforcing referral network. When one family from a particular community purchases successfully in Lynchburg or Forest, others in their extended community become aware. Local agents who have served those buyers well become the recommended agent. Relationships in these communities have compounding value.
The Liberty University Pipeline — An Untapped Central Virginia Opportunity
There is a buyer pipeline in Lynchburg that no local real estate agent appears to be systematically cultivating, and I want to name it plainly: Liberty University's international student population.
Liberty welcomed over 600 new international students from more than 60 countries in fall 2024 alone. These students arrive from South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, India, and across Latin America. They represent several distinct real estate opportunities:
Parents purchasing for their children. When a student enrolls in a four-year degree program, a family doing the math often discovers that purchasing a small home or condo near campus — and either housing the student there or renting remaining rooms to fellow students — compares favorably to four years of dormitory costs. For families with capital abroad, wiring funds to purchase a modest property outright is not an unusual choice. It's the same calculation wealthy families make near every major university in the country.
International faculty and staff settling permanently. Liberty's growth has required continuous faculty recruitment across disciplines. Professors and researchers recruited internationally who accept positions at Liberty are exactly the Type B buyer profile — educated, employed, present in the United States, and eventually ready to purchase their first home in Lynchburg. Within two to five years of arrival, many become homeowners. An agent who made a genuine effort to be a known resource for Liberty's international community would have a steady pipeline of exactly these buyers.
Graduate students on the path to employment. Liberty's graduate programs — law, business, education — attract international students who stay in the Lynchburg area after graduation. They find employment locally, build credit, and within a few years become first-time homebuyers. They remember which agent was helpful when they were navigating an unfamiliar process, and they refer their friends.
The competitive opening here is real. I am not aware of any local agent actively cultivating a formal relationship with Liberty's International Student Center. Being the agent who presents at international student orientation, who maintains a presence in international student community groups, and who understands the specific questions foreign students' parents ask about U.S. property purchase represents a meaningful, defensible niche.
Smith Mountain Lake and the International Investor Story
Waterfront is a universal language. Every country with a leisure-oriented middle and upper class understands the value of lake property. Canadian buyers, in particular, need almost no translation — they know exactly what lakefront access, dock rights, and seasonal rental income mean.
Smith Mountain Lake's numbers tell a compelling story for any internationally-oriented investor:
- Average sold price for waterfront properties has exceeded $1.3 million
- Median annual rental revenue for well-positioned SML vacation rentals runs approximately $33,000 to $38,000
- The lake's 22,000 acres and 500+ miles of shoreline provide genuine scarcity — this is not a manufactured amenity
- Franklin County's short-term rental regulations remain more permissive than many Virginia markets, supporting investor returns
For a Canadian buyer facing sky-high Ontario cottage prices — where similar waterfront access in the Muskokas now exceeds $2 million CAD — Smith Mountain Lake represents transformative value. For a retiring Chinese-American professional couple from McLean or Reston, it represents exactly the lifestyle upgrade they've been delaying while paying Northern Virginia mortgages. For a UK investor comparing U.S. lake property yields against European alternatives, the combination of rental income, appreciation, and personal-use benefit makes a compelling case.
The opportunity for agents serving the SML market is to think beyond the traditional buyer demographics and deliberately reach the internationally-connected NoVA professional community that is, right now, looking for exactly what the lake offers.
What to Do With This Information — A Practical Checklist
The 2025 NAR international buyer report is not just an interesting data release. It's a market signal with actionable implications for anyone buying or selling real estate in Central Virginia. Here's how I'd translate it into practical next steps:
If you're selling, ask your agent how they market to globally-connected buyer pools. The answer should go beyond "it's on the MLS." What professional networks does your agent belong to? Do they have relationships with relocation specialists serving NoVA's international professional community? Can they cross-list on platforms that reach international buyers specifically? These aren't exotic questions anymore — they're reasonable due diligence.
If you're buying and you're an internationally-connected buyer — a recent immigrant, a visa holder, a foreign national with U.S.-based income — you deserve an agent who understands your specific situation. Financing as a non-citizen is possible but has different pathways. FIRPTA obligations affect your eventual sale. Some lenders specialize in ITIN loans. The Virginia real estate transaction process has specifics that differ from what you may know from your home country. Work with someone who has handled these situations before and can walk you through them without making you feel like an unusual case.
If you're an investor — domestic or international — looking at Central Virginia's rental market, the data points toward short-term vacation rental in the Smith Mountain Lake corridor and long-term residential rental in Campbell County and Pittsylvania County, where purchase prices remain well below $260,000 and rental demand is steady. The math for making rentals work financially is still available here in ways it simply isn't in coastal markets.
The Bigger Picture
I've been watching Central Virginia for two decades, and the consistent story is this: our region has always been undervalued relative to its actual quality of life. The pandemic relocation wave made that case to domestic buyers. The 2025 NAR international buyer data suggests a similar case is beginning to register with internationally-connected buyers who have the financial sophistication to recognize value when they see it.
$56 billion in foreign buyer activity doesn't flow through our backyard. But it doesn't have to. Even a fractional redirection of that capital toward Virginia's Blue Ridge corridor — toward our lake, our valleys, our affordable and exceptional communities — would be material. And the agents, the sellers, and the investors who are paying attention now will be positioned when that shift accelerates.
If you have questions about what this means for your specific situation — whether you're selling a home in Bedford County, buying near Liberty University, evaluating a Smith Mountain Lake investment, or navigating the Virginia market as a recent immigrant — reach out. This is exactly the kind of conversation I'm built for.
Teresa Grant is the Owner and Luxury Listing Specialist at The Realty Group Team, Keller Williams. With 1,300+ properties closed and $343M+ in career volume, she has been Central Virginia's trusted real estate advisor since 2005. Data sourced from NAR's 2025 Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate. Reach the team at therealtygrouponline.com.