A $1.1 million listing in West Bellevue recently attracted 24 bidders, virtually all of them Chinese, and the home quickly sold for $1.4 million. Ms. Wan said a $2.5 million lakefront property recently sold with three offers, just days after coming onto the market. The median sales price in Bellevue is up 82 percent since 2011, to $1.37 million, according to sales data.

The boom may be just starting. A survey by the Hurun Report, a China-based wealth research firm, found that 64 percent of China’s millionaires have emigrated or plan to emigrate in coming years. They listed their favorite destination as the United States, followed by Canada and Australia. While respondents cited better education, air quality and food safety as their main reasons, concerns about political and social stability have also caused the wealthy to secure more of their fortunes overseas, according to advisers to wealthy Chinese families. Chinese residents held an estimated $659 billion offshore in 2013. The number is expected to surge to $1.9 trillion by 2018, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

Their attraction to Seattle stems from its top schools, clean air, longtime Chinese population and, more recently, a hit movie. The 2013 film “Beijing Meets Seattle” (or “Finding Mr. Right” in English) became one of China’s top-grossing films of all time, telling the story of a pregnant woman who flies to Seattle to find true love and American citizenship for her baby. The film struck a chord with younger Chinese, who saw Seattle as a liberating, romantic escape from the intense materialism of China (even though much of the movie was filmed in Vancouver).

“People my age in China suddenly started talking about Seattle,” said Bangze Wang, a Beijing native who now lives in Seattle.

Mr. Wang, known as James, embodies the new Seattle-China attraction. The son of a successful developer in Beijing, he arrived in Seattle in 2008 with plans to attend the University of Washington and return home to the family business. After graduation, however, he was offered a job at Lochwood-Lozier Custom Homes, one of Seattle’s top builders. Now he’s a project manager, negotiator and all-around cultural liaison between the company and wealthy Chinese buyers.

“Seattle was a better opportunity for me than China right now,” Mr. Wang said. “A lot of Chinese families are planning to move here.”

Lochwood-Lozier used to sell its high-end homes to Microsoft millionaires and other local executives. Now it is building 10 new homes aimed mainly at Chinese buyers, with prices of $2.5 million to $5 million.