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The Wall Street Journal has joined the chorus of media outlets highlighting Chinese real-estate purchases in Seattle.

In an article entitled "For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver", reporters Laura Kusisto and Kim Mackrael delve into the details.

"Chinese real-estate buyers are suddenly descending on the Seattle region," they wrote. "Some are lured by perceptions the coastal city is a bargain, others by warm memories of the 2013 Chinese film 'Finding Mr. Right,' which put Seattle on the pop culture radar there."

But the biggest draw, they note, might be the decision of the B.C. government to impose a 15 percent tax on foreign buyers of Lower Mainland residential real estate.

It cited data from Juwai.com, which showed Internet searches in China for Vancouver real estate were down 37 percent in December from the same time a year ago.

In December, Fortune magazine published an article with a similar message.

In "Asian Investors Shift to Seattle As a New Vancouver Tax Takes Effect", reporter Feliz Solomon cribbed from a Bloomberg report that examined the impact of the 15 percent tax.

"Several brokers in Seattle and Toronto told the news agency that they were seeing a surge of foreign interest in high-end properties, many valued over $1 million," Solomon wrote. "According to Bloomberg, about 12% of the homes sold in city this year netted seven figures, and the price for a single-family home rose by almost 15%, while sales in the metropolitan area have reportedly risen 50% over the past five years."

As far back as last September, Global News reported that foreign buyers were "flooding Seattle and Toronto real estate markets" following the imposition of the Vancouver tax.

Similar stories have also appeared in the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun.

Sotheby's Seattle-based real estate broker Lili Shang has been a source for some of these articles, including one that appeared in the Seattle Times last September.