International buyers are responsible for a large part in the U.S. housing recovery and China is leading the way.

Although Canada is #1 in the number of purchases across the country, China is purchasing the more expensive homes. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Chinese home purchases are up more than 70%. Monetarily speaking, that comes out to over $22 billion, compared to the $8.2 billion that was purchased by the Chinese in 2012.

Only 39% of the Chinese buyers state that they intend to use their home purchases as their main home. Many of the purchases are intended to be used as homes for their children attending college and others are looking for vacation properties. Quite often the vacation properties are purchased in a city close to where their children are attending school. According to Wei Min Tan, a broker with Rutenberg Realty in Manhattan, New York, "They often have kids in school somewhere nearby and they fly into New York, spend a few days and then go on to visit their kids."

These home buying transactions are usually pretty quick, as 70% of the Chinese buyers pay in cash.

The biggest market for Chinese home buyers is Los Angeles and New York, according to Juwai.com. Philadelphia and Detroit came in at 3rd and 4th, oddly enough, as many Chinese home buyers are looking to be landlords in some of the economically distressed cities across the country. The last six cities in the top 10 list are Houston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Diego and Memphis.

In addition to the wave of Chinese buyers and the Canadian buyers, the top five international buyers finish up with Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. India also showed a 48% jump in money spent.