Justice
When Immigrants Push Up Housing Prices
Foreign-born U.S. residents have a profound effect on housing demand, property values, and racial segregation rates. But it’s not as simple as you might think.
In America, the places immigrants call home change dramatically as a result of their presence. From the 19 century tenements of Manhattan to the Chinatowns and Little Italys that appeared nationwide, all the way to today’s immigrant suburbs, the foreign-born population has a deep but often-overlooked relationship with local housing markets.
Academics who’ve studied aspects of that relationship recently gathered at a conference organized by the CATO Institute. From their findings and others, two big themes become clear. Immigrants make their neighborhoods better and their neighbors, wealthier. But they’re still shunned by natives when they move in—a pattern that has more to do with the color of their skin than anything else.