Vacation tours to buy L.A. homes
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Catching up on the weekend detritus (er, comments), reader Fezco called our attention to Sunday’s A1 story on ‘Chinese tour groups go house-hunting in the U.S.’:
Reporting from Shanghai -- Caravans of cash-rich Chinese in Hummers and Lincoln Navigators have been weaving through American neighborhoods in recent months, looking for foreclosures and other bargain properties to buy. ... The tours are a new twist on an old phenomenon. Overseas Chinese have been buying Southern California properties for years. What’s different now is that they are starting to do it in large groups and quite openly.’Before, it was kind of private, a quiet thing among friends,’ said Jamie Lee, a Chinese American who runs the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau office in Beijing. ‘Now it’s full-blown. ... It’s huge.’ Some of these groups ‘are talking about going every two weeks.’
Notes Fezco:
Out here in the SGV there [were] about 6 buses in a caravan trolling through the streets. ...
I have not seen such tour buses in the South Bay (my neck of the woods), but then again, I’m in downtown L.A. working most days. Would be interested to hear from those who have and where.
--Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?
