Immigration’s Impact On Housing Affordability Highlighted During VP Debate
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
Senator JD Vance blamed illegal immigration into the United States for the high costs of housing during the vice presidential debate Tuesday night.
Vance (R-OH) and Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) were asked about the high costs of housing and rent, the top contributor to inflation, at approximately 10:05 p.m.
With a shortage of over four million homes in the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris plans to incentivize the building of three million new homes while providing first-time homebuyers with $25,000 to help with the down payment on a new home.
“Where are you building these homes and won’t handing out that kind of money just drive up prices higher?” Walz was asked.
Walz responded by blaming investors for the problematic housing market.
“The problem we’ve had is that we’ve got a lot of folks who see housing as another commodity. It can be bought up, it can be shifted, it can be moved around. Those are not folks living in those houses,” he said.
Walz said that in Minnesota they put resources into housing and it paid off.
“We get it back from people. Because here is what we know. People with stable housing end up with stable jobs. People with stable housing have their kids be able to get to school. All of those things in the long run end up saving our money,” Walz said.
Walz said immigrants should not be blamed as the sole reason for the latest housing affordability crunch.
Vance was asked about the Republican campaign’s promises to seize federal lands to build homes, remove regulations, provide tax breaks, and cut back on immigration.
“Where are you going to build all of the new homes you’re promising and what part of any of this plan will provide immediate relief?” Vance was asked.
Vance said he agrees with Walz that immigrants should not be blamed for higher housing prices, but that Harris should be blamed for letting in millions of illegal aliens which drives up costs.
“25 million illegal aliens competing with Americans for scarce homes is one of the most significant drivers of home prices in the country. It’s why we have massive increases in home prices that have happened right alongside massive increases in illegal alien populations under Kamala Harris’ leadership,” Vance said.
He said that as sitting vice president if Harris wants to enact all of her housing proposals, she can.
Vance said lowering energy costs is the key to making housing and other goods more affordable.
“As Donald Trump says, ‘Drill, baby, drill.’ One of the biggest drivers of housing costs, aside from illegal immigration, is think about it, if a truck driver is paying 40% more for diesel, then the lumber he is delivering to the job site to build the house is also going to become a lot more expensive,” Vance said.
Vance said when it comes to seizing federal lands to build new housing, former President Trump says there are a lot of federal lands that are not being used for national parks. He then circled back to the issue of immigration.
“I do think we should be opening up building in this country. We have a lot of land that could be used. We have a lot of Americans that need homes. We should be kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes and we should be building more homes for the American citizens who deserve to be here,” Vance said.
You can watch the exchange between Vance and Walz starting at about 1:01:30 here:
Walz asked Vance which economists are saying immigrants are adding to the housing crisis.
“There’s a Federal Reserve study that we’re happy to share after the debate. We’ll put it up on social media, actually, that really drills down on the connection between increased levels of migration, especially illegal immigration, and higher housing prices,” Vance said.
Vance posted remarks from Michelle Bowman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on X after the debate. She said, “Given the current low inventory of affordable housing, the inflow of new immigrants to some geographic areas could result in upward pressure on rents.”
According to a fact check by the Associated Press, most economists blame a long-term decline in housing supply for the steady increases in home prices.
“The number of new homes under construction plunged from an annual pace of 1.4 million in April 2006 to barely above 400,000 in August 2011, and didn’t recover to 2006 levels until 2021,” the AP wrote.
“There might be upward pressure on home prices in some markets because of immigrants arriving, but most economists say the issue is a lack of supply of homes on the market. Homebuilders say they need the immigrants to build the homes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a September news conference that high mortgage rates mean people aren’t listing their homes for sale and there has not been enough supply.”
The fact check also stated that Vance’s estimates of the number of illegal aliens in the country are inflated.
Recent surges in immigration have pushed demand for rental housing and the effects will be felt for years to come, according to Eric Finnigan, vice president of demographics research at John Burns Research and Consulting.
“We’ve been calling this out. We’ve been calling out the importance of immigration for population and housing since last year,” Finnigan recently said.
According to a CBS News poll, 42% of viewers said Vance won the debate, while 41% thought Walz emerged as the winner. 17% called the debate a tie.