Housing market fuelled by immigrants

Housing market fuelled by immigrantsA new study says that house ownership and rentals are set to continue to grow within the next seven years.  It is estimated that immigrants will generate 36 percent of the demand for new homes in the United States.

The report, Immigration Contributions to Housing Demand in the United States: A Comparison of Recent Decades and Projections to 2020 for the States and Nation, was sponsored by the RIHA (Research Institute for Housing America) of the Mortgage Bankers Association and prepared by the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development’s Population Dynamics Research Group.

Immigrant purchasers have filled a bag gap in the housing market over the course of the last ten years with the number of house buyers in the United States having otherwise declined.  USA Today says that immigrants are set to generate as much as 36 percent of the extra demand, although that figure is reduced because of the increasing demand from buyers that are native born.  However, foreign-born purchasers are set to account for the greater majority of growth in states such as California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.

While the share of immigrant demand may have technically been reduced, economist Mark Zandi says that they are to play a big part in the housing market’s success.  The projections suggested by the report imply that from 2010 to 2020 immigrants will account for as much as 32.3 percent growth in all households across the United States.