Experts informed the Daily Caller News Foundation that the increase in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden has made the already expensive housing market for normal Americans worse by exacerbating the scarcity of shelter.
Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that there is now a $4 million to $7 million housing shortfall in the United States as developers struggle to meet demand due to difficult financial circumstances and onerous regulatory procedures. According to experts who spoke with the DCNF, the recent wave of illegal immigrants is adding to the system’s strain by aggravating the current shortage of supply in the housing market at a rate that developers are unable to keep up with. Average Americans are under pressure from rising housing costs caused by inflation and higher mortgage rates.
“There is no doubt that the demand for housing will rise with the immigration of millions of people, regardless of immigration status,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “The border states and so-called sanctuary towns where Governor Abbott has been sending the influx of illegals appear to be the most affected, or at least have received the most media attention.”
According to statistics from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), under Biden, the number of people who were born outside of the United States increased by 6.6 million. The Center estimates that illegal immigration is to blame for 58% of this rise.
Ira Mehlman, the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s communications director, told the DCNF, “I am not sure anybody can accurately measure the effect.” “It makes sense that when a lot of people move here, they need somewhere to live, and supply and demand dictate that prices increase when there is a surplus of need oversupply.”
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in 2021, Miami had more than 626,000 total illegal immigrants, accounting for 11% of the population, while Houston had around 413,000, San Diego had 188,847, and Loudoun County, Virginia, had more than 26,000, representing 6.3% of the county’s population.
To relieve pressure in his state, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has had to deal with the majority of the flood at the southern border, has resorted to bussing thousands of migrants to places like New York City, Denver, and Chicago.
“Visit high-impact locations—such as New York City or Denver—because it undoubtedly affects those at the lower end of the housing market,” Melhman told the DCNF. “Clearly, the sheer number of housing and hotel rooms that are already accessible in areas like New York City restricts the supply for other individuals seeking an inexpensive place to reside.”
In order to handle the massive number of immigrants, New York City has resorted to employing hotels as shelters. In reaction to the migrant inflow in the second half of 2023, Democratic officials in New York City, Denver, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., all proclaimed states of emergency.
According to city comptroller figures, as of March 10, 2024, some 64,600 individuals were residing in shelters supported by New York City, and 182,900 had passed through the system since spring 2022. According to The Colorado Sun, as of January, Denver shelters were hosting 4,500 migrants, making them the city with the highest number of migrants per capita.
Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at CIS, told the DCNF, “All of those individuals have to find a place to live, and they can only live in government-provided housing and sanctuary cities for so long.” As a result, all of those people will be forced to leave. They will most likely move into multifamily housing.
S&P Global data shows that property prices in New York and Miami increased by 8.7% and 8.0%, respectively, in the past year that concluded in February. These increases were more than the 6.4% national average.
According to National Multifamily Housing Council research, the U.S. was already falling short of the demand for affordable apartments before the most recent wave of illegal immigration, with the overall number declining by 4.7 million between 2015 and 2020. According to the research, immigration is one major factor influencing apartment demand.
“It can take up to two years to build a single apartment, so there is no way to handle this enormous influx of illegal immigrants that exacerbates the housing crisis in the US and drives up the price that multifamily housing companies charge for those units,” Arthur told the DCNF.
According to Consumer Affairs data, the United States built 1.45 million new privately owned dwelling units in 2023, with a greater concentration in specific places like Texas than California due to pricing and regulatory constraints. The average cost of building a home is currently over $392,000, increasing by almost $100,000 between 2019 and 2022.
Arthur told the DCNF, “You cannot construct rapidly enough at the pace they are flooding in.” “You have to demonstrate that there will be a need in order to actually secure the finance, and this becomes much more challenging when dealing with an undetermined number of applicants, as is the case right now.”
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