As we first reported two years ago, one of the primary reasons, if not the main one (there is also the Fed to thank) why the US housing market, and specifically its ultra-luxury segment, has experienced a recovery in the past two years even as the other segments of US housing have languished, was due to foreign investors laundering offshore funds in the US real estate market facilitated by the NAR's exemption from anti-money laundering regulations. This topic finally made the mainstream media recently with the NY Mag's article on just this topic titled "Stash Pad", which we also covered extensively. Today, for the first time, we have definitive evidence of not only all of the above, but granular detail of just how "easy" Chinese money has been when it comes to bidding US real estate.

As the WSJ reports, "foreign purchases of U.S. real estate jumped by 35% last year, and the Chinese led the way, according to a survey released Tuesday.