In a growing number of families across America, a sad ritual is playing out daily.
A father stands in the doorway of a one-bedroom apartment and watches his 26-year-old son scroll through listings of homes he will never afford. The boy did everything he was told. He worked. He saved. He didn’t wreck his credit. And still the numbers on the screen look like a cruel joke: $300,000, $400,000, half-a-million for a starter house that would have cost his parents a fraction of that when they were the same age.
Young people still want to own houses, but they are understandably and deeply cynical about their chances of ever owning one. They blame interest rates, corporations, zoning, and student debt. Those things matter, but what they almost never blame is the reality that millions of extra people were purposely added to the bidding war for the same finite supply of homes.
In 1980, there were 14.1 million foreign-born people living in the United States. Today there are over 51 million. Fifty-one million. That’s roughly the population of entire countries like South Korea, Uganda and Colombia. Those people aren’t living in tents in the U.S.; they are in apartments and homes, which puts them in direct competition with American citizens for scarce living units. By the universal laws of economics, the inevitable result is higher costs for housing.
There is abundant research detailing this phenomenon. Department of Housing and Urban Development data showed foreign-born residents driving two-thirds of recent rental-demand growth nationwide. Median existing-home prices climbed from about $235,000 in 2016 to more than $410,000.
A paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on the 2021–24 Biden-era border surge found that an increase in illegal alien workers equal to 1% of the local workforce raised house prices 2.2% and rents 1.4%, with little extra construction to absorb the demand. The Dallas Fed also estimated illegal migration accounted for roughly 30% of home-price growth and 20% of rent growth in the average metro during those years.
The solution is not just to build more houses. Many of the same people demanding amnesty for illegal aliens also tend to oppose “suburban sprawl.” New housing supply does not appear overnight. Zoning, lawsuits, and neighborhood vetoes keep building slow. Demand, however, can explode quickly. Add several million extra house hunters and prices rise. That is what happened to the generation now staring at listings well beyond their budgets.
The competition for homes between U.S. citizens and noncitizens isn’t even on a level playing field, as sanctuary politicians have doled out generous housing benefits to noncitizens. That would include the Asylum Seeker Emergency Rental Assistance Program in Illinois, a mix of state and city aid to move those identifying as asylum seekers out of shelters. The program approved over 4,000 applications in 2023, with the state paying over $50 million for more than 6,000 units. Similar programs exist in the places one would expect, specifically New York and California, including noncitizens in programs originally set up for citizens.
What about the kid who worked his way through college, found a decent job but can’t make enough for a down payment on a starter home? He’s out of luck. Inflated prices mean even an assist from an FHA loan would leave a near-impossible monthly payment. Meanwhile, anti-borders politicians allocate untold millions to secure housing for those who just arrived from other countries.
Parents with a child in such a predicament need to look in the mirror. Do you support loose border enforcement, catch-and-release of illegal aliens and sanctuary policies? Do you support politicians who put the interests of foreigners above American citizens? If so, you are helping create the conditions that make your child’s future prospects far less prosperous than they should be, and probably less than you had at the same age.
A country that cannot house its young has broken faith with them. When the American people demand fewer arrivals – legal and illegal – and when the government actually enforces the law, the bidding war will ease. Less new arrivals mean less competition for the same units. Over time, rents and home prices respond favorably.
Parents are allowed to want their children to have at least what they had. Young people’s despair is not a character flaw. The problem is a market that was intentionally overloaded to push an extreme political agenda. Reduce the numbers and the market will do what markets do. You can help fix the problem by supporting responsible immigration enforcement. That is not xenophobia. It is giving your family a chance at the American Dream, our birthright as citizens.
