According to experts, illegal immigration under Biden has contributed to the housing shortage

The surge in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden has exacerbated an already expensive housing market for average Americans, worsening the housing shortage, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation .

The U.S. currently has an estimated shortage of 4 million to 7 million homes as developers struggle to keep up with demand amid tough financial conditions and onerous regulatory processes. seconds at Pew Charitable Trusts. Average Americans looking for a home are being tight due to rising housing costs due to inflation and high mortgage rates, but the recent influx of illegal immigrants is putting even more strain on the system by exacerbating the current shortage of supply in the market of housing at a rate that developers cannot maintain. according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

“Importing millions of people will clearly increase the demand for all necessities, including housing, and that's true whether people are coming here legally or illegally,” EJ Antoni, a researcher at the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget from the Heritage Foundation. he told the DCNF. “The effects seem to be most noticeable, or at least have gotten the most media attention, in the border states and so-called sanctuary cities where Governor Abbott has been sending the flood of illegals.”

The foreign-born population under Biden has increased by 6.6 million, and an estimated 58% of the increase is due to illegal immigration. seconds in search of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

“I'm not sure anyone can quantify exactly the effect,” Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the DCNF. “Logically, when people come here in large numbers, they need a place to live, and supply and demand dictate that when there's more demand than supply, the price goes up.”

Miami had more than 626,000 total illegal immigrants, or 11% of the population, in 2021, while Houston had about 413,000, San Diego had 188,847, and Loudoun County, Virginia had more than 26,000 , or 6.3% of the county's population. seconds to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbot, who has been forced to bear the brunt of much of the influx at the southern border, has route to transport thousands of migrants to cities including New York, Denver and Chicago to relieve stress in their state.

“You go to the high-impact areas, places like New York City or Denver, it definitely has an impact on people at the lower end of the housing market,” Melhman told the DCNF. “Obviously, just the sheer number of available housing and even hotel rooms that are being taken up now in places like New York City limits the availability for other people looking for an affordable place to live.” .

New York City has it route using hotels as migrant shelters to cope with the huge influx of immigrants. Democratic leaders in New York City, Denver, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington, DC, all declared states of emergency in response to the influx of migrants in the second half of 2023.

As of March 10, 2024, about 64,600 people were staying in New York City-funded shelters, and 182,900 have come through the system since spring 2022. seconds to the municipal intervention data. Denver shelters housed 4,500 migrants in January, claiming to be the largest recipient of migrants per capita. seconds in the Colorado Sun.

“All these people have to find a place to live and can only live in government-provided housing and sanctuary cities for so long,” Andrew Arthur, resident fellow for law and policy at CIS, told the DCNF. “That's going to drive all those people out. They're probably going to multi-family housing.”

New York and Miami have seen their home prices increase by 8.7% and 8.0% in the past year ending in February, higher than the US average of 6.4%. seconds to data from S&P Global.

Even before the most recent surge in illegal immigration, the US was already lagging in demand for affordable apartments, with a total decrease of 4.7 million between 2015 and 2020. seconds to a report from the National Multifamily Housing Council. The report found that immigration was a major driver of demand for apartments, in particular.

“It can take a year and a half to two years to build an apartment, so there's no way to accommodate this massive illegal flow that's exacerbating the housing shortage in the U.S. and in turn increasing the amount of money that multifamily housing companies charge for those units,” Arthur told the DCNF.

Do you want to retire early? You'll need more than $1 million to live “comfortably” under Biden, the report said https://t.co/skSdW5d6DT

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 21, 2024

The United States built 1.45 million new privately owned housing units by 2023, largely concentrated in certain states like Texas as opposed to California due to costs and permitting regulations. seconds to Consumer Affairs research. The cost of building a home has increased by nearly $100,000 per unit between 2019 and 2022, totaling about $392,000 on average.

“At the rate they're going in, you can't build fast enough,” Arthur told the DCNF. “You have to get the funding, which means you have to show there's going to be a need, and if you're talking about an uncertain number of people coming, which is true now, getting that funding becomes everything. com more difficult.”

Arthur argues that because the government does not disclose how many people have entered the country illegally, developers are left trying to guess market demand for projects that often take years to complete.

“While advocates of illegal immigration claim that importing large numbers of low-wage labor will reduce the cost of construction, this does not address the structural problems in the housing market surrounding the types of interest and record high material costs,” Antoni told the DCNF. “Furthermore, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that illegal immigrants today increase the supply of housing brought into the market any more than they increase the demand for housing.”

Developers looking to build new homes are facing immense resistance due to the rising cost of credit and high inflation that have increased construction costs. The Federal Reserve has it set its federal funds rate to a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, a 23-year high, raising interest rates across the board in an effort to control inflation.

Inflation has driven up prices a total up from 19.3% since Biden took office, the majority recently rose 3.4% year-on-year in April. Housing costs have increased faster than the pace of general inflation, increasing by 20.9% since January 2021.

While the influx of immigrants has stressed housing prices, it has also served to boost the total US labor count, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell noting in early April that the increase is helping to ease the labor market shortage. seconds at Bloomberg. Accompanying the increase in the number of workers born abroad is a minor decline in native workers.

“The damage is done with respect to the market. The market will respond, but you're also talking about a population of people, again, that's not universally true, but generally, they have very low income levels, they don't have any job skills, and they haven't had the benefits of a good education,” Arthur told the DCNF. “So they're primarily going to be taking up space at the lowest level, which means they're going to be competing directly with the most disadvantaged Americans, not only in the job market but also in the housing market “.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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