Though I see your point, I don't really agree. 'Foreign' mostly means 'Foreign'. There just aren't a ton of Texans looking to buy up property in SF because 1)

Though I see your point, I don't really agree. 'Foreign' mostly means 'Foreign'. There just aren't a ton of Texans looking to buy up property in SF because 1) inequality, much as we may not think it's good in the US, is actually not that extreme and 2) places with extreme inequality and hyper concentrations of wealth tend to also be very corrupt places where private capital is likely to take flight. The 'non resident buyers' in SF/Van/Toronto are going to be from China, India, Russia, some other places like that, not Texas. Obviously, it takes on different characteristics, depending on. Florida is a domestic getaway and retirement spot for Americans, so it's a different kind of place. Non high-growth places like Van and Toronto have large foreign populations which act as points of entry. Chicago, Montreal, Portland ... do not. SF/Valley has a very unique characteristic of IPO Winners and 'local super high net worth' individuals that's hard to factor - and of course, it's not NY with the possibility of rapid expansion.