Chinese Looky Lous – Looking at US Real Estate but not Buying?

Last year, during the depths of the financial crises, groups of investors from China toured the US looking at real estate opportunities.  While many in the US real estate industry hoped that this would bring a wave of Chinese buying, this article from the New York Times says that Chinese are being Looky Lous – checking out properties but not buying.  I supposed this is dependent on location.   My realtor brother-in-law, who lives with my family in Silicon Valley, said last year that Chinese and other Asian investors are driving sales in our local real estate market. I asked him about this article, and he informs me that the situation is pretty much the same as last year.  The article also says that some Chinese buying is driven by parents whose children are studying in the US.  This is not surprising as more and more Chinese students are going to college in the US.