The CEO of real estate app Zillow was pressured to say in an interview with CNBC whether mass deportations would improve the U.S. housing affordability crisis.
Jeremy Waxman was talking about the company's earnings call on his show “Squawk on the Streets” when he was asked about President-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations.
“The structural challenges and changes that we need to make as a country are really about affordability and supply availability.”
“Both candidates talked a lot about how housing affordability was clearly a top issue for Americans on the campaign trail,” Sarah Eisen said.
“What President Trump has said about this is that much of the price problem is due to illegal immigration, and that after carrying out the largest deportation operation in history, demand will fall and prices will ease. .Do you agree? Are you optimistic about it? Can you help me?'' she asked.
“The big challenges in the real estate market are affordability and availability. These are two structural issues that we have to address,” Waxman responded.
“As we've talked about, affordability has to do with what's happened to home prices and inventory, and inventory is our biggest challenge. We're missing a list, and the list last year We're up a little bit more than we were before, but if you look back at pre-pandemic levels, we're in sharp decline and we're chronically under-building as a country.
And bringing more inventory and more new homes starting online is going to be one of the things that really helps with the supply-demand imbalance.
“But immigration is a big source of that demand, and is there a shortage of supply?” Eisen pressed.
“We're seeing demand across all sectors, and buyer demand as well,” Waxman said.
“When interest rates move a little bit, you see demand spike on sites like Zillow,” he added. “There's always going to be pent-up demand, willingness to buy. Again, the challenge for buyers is affordability and what they can buy. So the structural changes that we need to make as a country The challenges and changes are really about affordability and supply availability.”
The U.S. housing crisis has led to inventory shortages and soaring prices, with home affordability at its worst level in decades.
Economist Chloe East said NPR argued that while illegal immigration is unlikely to be affecting affordability, other factors are to blame for the housing crisis. but some research found that illegal immigrants increase demand for limited housing, leading to higher rents and housing prices.
waxman video exterior CNBC shows can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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