A recent report from the Dallas Fed highlights how President Joe Biden’s surge in illegal immigration is affecting home prices and rents in the United States.
The administration’s immigration policies have led to an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants, with the foreign-born population nearing 52 million by the end of Biden’s term, a record high for the country.
The Fed’s analysis looked at how illegal immigration has influenced home prices from early 2021 through early 2024, revealing that costs escalated alongside population growth.
“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that net admissions of these immigrants will add around 7 million people (approximately 1.75 million annually) from 2021 to 2024, nearly double the amount from legal immigration,” the report notes.
In context, illegal immigration—referring to individuals who entered the country without formal admission—averaged around 100,000 people yearly from 2000 to 2019, and was actually slightly negative from 2010 to 2019. [Emphasis added]
…
We then examine the broader impacts of illegal immigration on the local economy, focusing on the housing market. We estimate the effects on house prices, rents, and new housing supply. Specifically, during this surge, the arrival of undocumented immigrant workers equated to about 1% of the initial employment in the region, leading home prices to increase by 2.2% and rents by 1.4%. The effect on rents tends to be somewhat lower for single-family homes and higher for apartments. These figures are comparable to those found by Saiz (2007) regarding legal immigration from 1985–1998. According to our analysis, [the flow of unauthorized immigrant workers] explains approximately 30% of the total increase in home prices and around 20% of the rise in rents during the economic boom. This is true for the average local market. [Emphasis added]
This report aligns with earlier studies that suggest that mass immigration has significantly influenced home prices, mostly affecting first-time homebuyers the hardest.
A study by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released last year suggested that Biden’s policy of bringing millions of immigrants is particularly hard on low-income Americans who don’t receive public assistance.
“One key driver of increased housing needs is immigration. Between 2021 and 2024, the foreign-born population grew by over 6 million, marking the largest increase in a short time frame in U.S. history,” the HUD report found.
“This surge in immigrant households has led to a notable rise in demand for housing, pushing home prices up,” the HUD study continues. “In certain markets, immigrants are responsible for nearly all recent increases in housing demand.”
In September 2025, a Danish economist published findings indicating that the influx of immigrants is significantly escalating rent and home prices for locals.
“Our findings show that immigration positively impacts private rents and house prices at the municipal level,” the researchers clarified.
More specifically, compared to the base year 1995 local population, a 1 percent increase in local immigrant inflows over five years raises private rents and home prices by about 6 percent and 11 percent on average, respectively, at the local government level over that same period. [Emphasis added]
Moreover, Stephen Camarota, a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, presented similar information to Congress in 2024, noting, “A recent 5 percent increase in the immigrant share of a metropolitan area’s population corresponds to a 12 percent rise in rent for the typical U.S.-born household relative to income.”
