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Too many Chinese buyers, rich businessmen, corrupt bureaucrats, made money speculating on Beijing real estate and middle class speculators with children planning to study in the US have flooded the housing market from Vancouver, Seattle to SF Bay area. I guess they probably form at least 10-25% of buyers.

Just making overpriced metros ineligible for foreign buyers could ease the pricing pressure.

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When you sell stuff to foreign people that’s called exporting. Exports are good. They bring money from foreign countries to your country.

So SF could stop exporting with some sort of ban on foreign buyers. For what's it worth (not much), I think such a ban would have almost no effect, as unless the US bans all Chinese capital wholesale, all the same money can makes it way to SF real estate through less direct means.

Or we could fix our taxes and regulations. The current regime of taxes and regulations actively incentivize speculation, and penalize land use. We need tax revenue, might as well collect it in a way that discourages speculation.

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