But why allow e.g. Chinese investors to buy property in SF if they aren't even going to live there?

Do they pay property taxes?

	▲	amelius 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Maybe but that will certainly not bring down prices for the average US citizen looking for a home.
	▲	fragmede 35 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		In California? With prop 13? Hardly. We invented money as a way of distributing scares resources. When there is housing going empty while people live on the streets in tents with no running water, no electricity, no sewage, one has to realize that something's gone wrong.