A report from the Federal Reserve of Dallas revealed some of the serious economic consequences of the massive increase in illegal immigration during the administration of Joe Biden, directly linking this phenomenon to a sharp rise in housing prices and rents in the United States.
The working paper concludes that the migration wave recorded between 2021 and 2024, described as an “unprecedented surge” of illegal immigration, had a significant impact on the real estate market, in a context where the supply of housing was already limited.
According to the analysis, the massive arrival of undocumented immigrants sustained the demand for housing, without construction being able to keep pace with that growth.
Illegal immigrants
As a result, researchers identified considerable increases in costs: migration flows accounted for approximately 30% of the increase in housing prices and nearly 20% of the rise in rents in the average metropolitan area between March 2021 and March 2024.
The report further details that a 1% increase in the number of undocumented workers relative to the local labor force was associated with a 2.2% increase in housing prices and a 1.4% increase in rents. This phenomenon, according to economists, is due to a “housing demand crisis” driven by the influx of migrants in markets where supply did not expand at the same pace.
Houses in the United States
The report also includes estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which indicate that unauthorized net immigration added around 7 million people to the U.S. population during that period, before slowing down in mid-2024.
In this context, researchers emphasize that while immigration was not the only factor behind the increase in housing costs, its impact was significant in the analyzed areas, consolidating additional pressure on an already strained market.
Thus, the study concluded that the increase in immigration boosted local employment but collided with a limited and slowly growing housing supply, raising competition for properties and driving up rents, harming millions of American citizens
