Overseas buyers snapped up more than $100 billion in U.S. real estate over the past year, as the foreign wealthy sought safe shelter for their fortunes.

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of U.S. residential real estate to overseas buyers between April 2014 and March 2015 reached a record $104 billion, or about 8 percent of total existing home sales. While the number of properties sold slowed to 209,000 from 232,600 last year, buyers acquired more expensive properties, which brought up the sales total.

Chinese were far and away the top foreign buyers of real estate last year, with buyers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan accounting for $28.6 billion in sales, according to the report. Canada ranked second, with $11.2 billion, followed by India with $7.9 billion. They mainly favored homes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York.

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Overall, Florida was the top state for overseas real estate buyers, accounting for 21 percent of all U.S. sales to foreign buyers. California ranked second, with 16 percent, followed by Texas with 8 percent and Arizona with 5 percent. The top four states accounted for half of overseas buying.