How important are immigrants to the U. S. housing market? At least according to University of Washington economist Jacob Vigdor they could own roughly 12.5% of the housing stock in the U. S. worth about $3.7 trillion in aggregate.
Here’s the math…there are roughly 320 million people in the U. S. and 125 million houses, or about 2.5 people per household. Since there are 40 million immigrants living in the U. S., that implies they could own around 16 million homes. Using an average home price of $225,000 would imply an aggregate household value of ~$3.7 trillion for immigrant families alone. Per Bloomberg:
Fueling housing demand, immigrants replace baby boomers retiring from the labor force, according to University of Washington
economist Jacob Vigdor.
By his reckoning, the country’s 40 million immigrants add $3.7 trillion to total housing wealth. In Houston’s home county, the newcomers boosted the value of the typical home by $25,000 during the decade ended in 2010. Between 2015 and 2065, according to a Pew Research projection, future immigrants and their descendants will account for 88 percent of the U. S. population increase, or 103 million people.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Feb 22, 2017.
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