United States · USA · snapshot 2026-08-16

United States

Measured

Changing this hides rules written for a different asset class rather than leaving you to notice. With JavaScript off you see all of them, each labelled.
  1. Currency movement

    -2.2%

    Period
    2025-07-01 to 2026-07-01
    Geography
    National
    Asset class
    Applies to any asset priced in this currency
    Source
    European Central Bank reference rates
    We may
    Published and reusable, with attribution

    The local currency bought more euros at the end of this window than at the start — a more expensive entry for a euro-denominated buyer, and a better exit for anyone already holding the asset.

    What it does not show. It is not a forecast and not a property return. A currency move and a price move are different facts and routinely point opposite ways; nothing here says which way either is going next.

  2. Foreign-buyer rules

    1 of 1 published rules apply

    Period
    Each rule carries its own retrieval date
    Geography
    National unless the rule states otherwise
    Asset class
    0 of these govern housing only
    Source
    The issuing authority for each rule, cited individually
    We may
    Public legal instruments, quoted with their citation

    These are the restrictions a foreign buyer meets before price is even discussed — approval regimes, surcharges, ownership limits.

    What it does not show. It is not a completeness claim. A rule we have not read is not a rule that does not exist, and this row counts what is cited, not what is in force.

  3. Cost of money

    3.625%

    Period
    2026-07
    Geography
    National
    Asset class
    Applies to any asset, indirectly
    Source
    Bank for International Settlements, central bank policy rates
    We may
    Publishable here; not licensed for paid deliverables

    The price of money to banks in this jurisdiction, which sets the floor everything else is priced from.

    What it does not show. It is emphatically not a mortgage quote. What a non-resident is offered is a different number, usually much higher, and the gap between them is where a market's financing story actually lives.

  4. Supply against absorption

    Not measured

    No statistics agency for this market has been read and cleared for republication. Two have been anywhere: Canada and Singapore. The data very likely exists; the permission to publish it has not been established.

  5. Residential price cycle

    152.9 against a 2015 base of 100

    Period
    2026-01-01
    Geography
    National
    Asset class
    Housing only
    Source
    OECD Analytical house prices indicators, real house prices
    We may
    Publishable here with attribution; not cleared for paid deliverables

    House prices have risen faster than consumer prices since 2015 — the market is above its own inflation-adjusted level of that year.

    What it does not show. It is a position, not a direction, and it is not a valuation. Deflating by consumer prices says nothing about what the asset yields or what credit costs, and a market can sit above its 2015 level for years without that meaning anything is due.

  6. Valuation against its own history

    111.7 to income, 130.2 to rent

    Period
    Income: 2026-01-01; rent: 2024-10-01
    Geography
    National
    Asset class
    Housing only — the ratios are built from dwelling prices
    Source
    OECD Analytical house prices indicators
    We may
    Publishable here with attribution; not cleared for paid deliverables

    Housing costs more relative to incomes than it did in 2015, on this country's own index. Buying takes more years of a local salary than it did then, which is a statement about the people who live there rather than about a foreign buyer's return.

    What it does not show. It is not comparable to another country's figure. Each index is 100 in its own 2015, so two of these side by side are two different base years wearing the same label — a market at 120 is not dearer than one at 90, it has merely moved further from its own past. It is also not a forecast, and a ratio can stay stretched for a decade.

  7. On the market now

    Not measured

    No listings platform has been read for this market. The one platform this site can read covers Russian cities only, and inventing a count for anywhere else would be worse than an empty row.

No dossier has been written for this market yet. What follows is the measured layers and the rules, each with its source — not an argument about whether to be here. A market reaches this page as soon as two layers can be cited, because an unwritten thesis is a reason to publish less, not a reason to publish nothing.

The series behind those figures, and the workings

Currency

-2.2%

Twelve-month move in USD per euro, 1.1677 in 2025-07 to 1.1417 in 2026-07. Positive means the local currency weakened. Source: European Central Bank monthly reference averages.

1.1567

Latest daily fixing, USD per euro on 2026-08-14. Shown because it is what a reader would see if they went and looked; the window above uses monthly averages, which one volatile day cannot move.

Against other base currencies

A market is cheap or dear relative to the capital entering it, so the same twelve months read differently depending on what the buyer holds. Both legs are quoted per euro, so the euro cancels and no third source is involved.

Buyer holdsUSD per unit, 2025-07USD per unit, 2026-07Twelve-month move
Pound sterling (GBP)1.35041.3371-1.0%
Swiss franc (CHF)1.25231.2336-1.5%
Singapore dollar (SGD)0.78050.7743-0.8%
Australian dollar (AUD)0.65370.6964+6.5%

Cost of money

3.625%

Central bank policy rate, 2026-07. Source: Bank for International Settlements.

This is the price of money to banks, not the price of money to a non-resident buying a building. The gap between those two is where a market’s financing story actually lives, and it is not in this number. A mortgage quote for a foreign buyer depends on the lender, the asset and the borrower, and no public dataset carries it.

BIS terms permit this figure on a free page and state that nothing in their statistics constitutes investment advice. They also allow inclusion in a commercial product only where it adds no charge, so this series is published here and is not priced into any paid work.

Background

Annual national statistics from the World Bank, under a licence that permits reuse with attribution. They describe the country; they do not time an entry, and they are not counted as measurements of this market — otherwise every territory on earth would claim to be measured on the strength of one dataset.

IndicatorValueYear
GDP per capita90,027 US$2025
Consumer price inflation2.9 %2024
Population341,784,8572025
Urban population80.2 % of total2025
Official exchange rate1.0000 per US$2025

What the rules do to a foreign buyer

Each entry cites the instrument and the authority page it was read from, with the date it was retrieved. Facts of law change; the retrieval date is how you know how old this reading is.

TopicIn forceWhen it bitesApplies toWhat appliesInstrumentRead on
The buyer withholds on a foreign seller, not the sellerIn forceNot stated by the sourceOn the way outAll propertyThe disposition of a U.S. real property interest by a foreign person is subject to income tax withholding under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980. The obligation falls on the transferee: in most cases the buyer is the withholding agent, and the rate is generally 15% of the amount realized rather than of the gain, so it is withheld whether or not the seller made a profit. A reduced rate or exemption applies where the property is acquired by the buyer as a residence and the amount realized is USD 300,000 or less. The trap is the direction of the duty. A foreign seller who plans for a tax bill after the sale finds that 15% of the gross price has already left the transaction, and a buyer who does not withhold becomes liable for the tax themselves.Internal Revenue Code section 1445, as explained in the Internal Revenue Service's FIRPTA withholding guidance.2026-08-17

What is missing, and why

supplySource does not cover this market

The dataset simply does not include this territory. Absent, not zero.

No statistics agency for this market has been read and cleared for republication. Two have been anywhere: Canada and Singapore. The data very likely exists; the permission to publish it has not been established.

What supports this, what would make it wrong, and how it could go

Record

Why this market is on the listGiven a friction layer when the Internal Revenue Service's FIRPTA guidance was read. The United States places almost no restriction on a foreign person buying real property and a substantial obligation on selling it, which is the opposite shape from most markets on this screen and the reason its one rule is an exit rule.
DossierNone written. Layers and rules only, which is why this market reads as “Measured” rather than reviewed.
Next review2026-11-15
Evidence snapshot2026-08-16