Why Purchase a house in the USA?
Purchase a house in the USA?, I have talked to many international friends and relatives, most of 90% of everybody I knew wanted to buy a house in the USA, 
many points have to be explained before you buy a house in the USA, after these points, I will explain how you can proceed to buy your house (hopefully), I am not an expert, 
I am just advising you from a house buyer point of view, make sure to contact a real estate agent or a loan officer to finalize your purchase:
You don't have to pay the full amount (I mean 100%) of the house value, you normally apply for a loan, this kind of loans is called "mortgage loan", when you apply for 
this loan,  you indicate how much you would like to put down and the rest can be paid in 30 years in monthly payments. Of course you need to know what kind of interest rates 
you are getting, there are hundreds of mortgage loan programs up there, the inerest rates can be fixed for the 30 years or can be adjustable related to one of the 
interest rate flags (like the prime rate), usually your application will be approved if you pay 25% down payment or more.
As far as I know you don't have to be a permenant resident in order to buy a house, however, your mortgage loan will be affected accordingly.
You don't negotiaite the buying procedures with the seller, each of the buyer and the seller should have a real estate agent, both agents negotiate the purchase on 
your behalf, don't worry about your agent, the seller will pay for both agents' fees. Curious to know how much they will take?, each will take 3% of the house value, they can 
of course accept less than that, but this is not your problem anyway, the seller can take care of that for you.
In most of the USA states, like California as an example, the purchase must be proceeded through a place called "Escrow", the Escrow is the place that both buyers and 
sellers can trust by submitting all the financial and the documentation needed to legalize the new purchase safely, also the seller will get his/her money through the same party, 
other states require a lawyer to finalize the purchase.
To get the mortgage loan, you can just ask your real estate agent to help you getting the loan by referring you to a loan officer or mortgager bank.
You can always refinance your mortgage loan at any time, of course if you haven't get the first mortgage loan with a pre-paid penalty.
Prices of houses in the USA, starts at $50,000 to $50,000,000, the average is about $300,000.
The easy steps: 
Know which city and state you are willing to live in: You might already know, but just in case, there are hundreds of statistics that can help you choose, in websites like msn, 
zillow and yahoo.
Locate a real estate agent: You can easily find a real estate agent by checking the above websites, discuss through email of what you are looking for and what's your budget.
Travel to the USA: Do you want to buy a house without seeing it, no no and no, meet your agent and