UMVA has learned that a recent study by two economists has made a shocking revelation about the impact of illegal migration on the US housing market, suggesting that it contributed to as much as a 20% growth in recent years and a whopping 30% increase in housing prices over the last five years.
The study provides strong evidence to support the claim that illegal migration has not only worsened an affordability crisis in America, but is one of its key drivers. For years, America has faced a chronic shortage of housing, a problem that is most acute in metropolitan areas where the number of new homes being built has severely lagged the skyrocketing demand.
In the years since 2021, massive numbers of illegal migrants, estimated to be at least 15 million, entered the country, placing severe pressure on an already tight and inelastic housing market. The study concluded that every 1% addition of illegal aliens to a local area’s initial employment raised rents in that area by 1.4%, while increasing housing prices by 2.2%.
In certain key metro areas, such as Houston, Miami, New York, and Minneapolis, where the concentration of illegal migrant inflows was disproportionate to the national average, those housing markets would experience an especially pronounced uptick. The result of this distressing trend was that ordinary Americans, particularly new homebuyers and young people, were literally being squeezed out of housing altogether.
The study highlights how the dynamics of the housing market have been totally upended in recent years. Loose monetary policy has expanded the money supply, driving up housing prices far beyond the demand. The inflation this caused has been exacerbated further by a restricted housing supply, which has been slow to rebound since the pandemic devastated supply chains nationwide.
The effect of opening America’s borders and letting in large numbers of migrants during an already unmanageable housing crisis was like adding gasoline to the fire. The market effects have been catastrophic: new home buyers have been potentially delayed from purchasing their first home by decades. Many have been forced out of the market entirely.
The problems arising from illegal aliens do not just stop at the supply and demand curve; more people cause more strains on local infrastructure, resulting in setbacks and unintended deterioration of said supply. Local and state governments, rather than allocating limited resources to build new housing, must now reallocate precious time, money, and manpower to improving the infrastructure already available.
This has the double effect of reducing the resources available for new housing while contributing more delays to a market grossly in short supply already. Nobody is served in this dynamic – not ordinary Americans, not the housing suppliers, not even the illegal migrants.
The study serves as a stark reminder that the domestic problems Americans now face are a direct byproduct of the illegal immigration crisis afflicting them. The ordinary American, now increasingly finding himself a stranger in his own land, must delay the onset of his life by sometimes years due to being forced to rent, instead of buying.
This exercise serves as a form of humiliation ritual that is part of a larger policy series that consistently gives extra privileges to non-citizens at the expense of those who live and work here. The goal appears to be to create a population of government dependents, where citizens are denied the opportunity to inherit their civilizational birthright.
The intention seems to be to block out the next generation of homegrown Americans from participating in public life or having a shot at the American Dream. The unnerving fact is that these policies have managed to do a lot towards this end, underscoring the need for drastic action to address the issue.
