Immigrants a Third of New Households

Foreign-born households are a large and growing factor in the U.S. housing market, expected to account for nearly one-third of all new households created this decade.

Immigrants have been making up a rising share of new homeowners in recent decades, according to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, rising from 800,000 foreign-born new homeowners in the 1980s to a projected 2.8 million this decade.

The report predicts that immigrants will make up 35.7 percent of all new homeowners during the years 2010-2020, while accounting to 26.4 percent of the increase in rental households.

“Immigrants are an important and growing source of demand that has bolstered housing markets in recent decades,” said Prof. Dowell Myers of the Population Dynamics Research Group at the University of Southern California, one of the co-authors of the study.

Upward mobility cited

He said that growth in housing demand has been more stable among immigrants than native-born Americans in recent decades, in part due to fluctuations in the size of the 25- to 34-year-old group that is the most typical age for buying a first home among native-born Americans. By contrast, he said, a relatively steady inflow of immigrants combined with strong upward mobility once they are established has driven increased demand for home ownership among non-natives.

Immigrants made up 82.2 percent of all new homeowners in California during the decade of 2000-2010, according to the report, and 65.1 percent of those in New York state. They also accounted for a majority of new homeowners during that period in Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan.

Although foreign-born new homeowners are expected to increase this decade in absolute numbers, by an additional 400,000, they are actually expected to make up a somewhat smaller share of the total number due to renewed demand among native-born first-time homebuyers. Native-born first-time homebuyers are expected to increase to 4.2 million this decade, up from 2.7 million from 2000-2010.

First published on MortgageLoan.com at: http://www.mortgageloan.com/immigrants-third-new-households-9383