At the recent Vice-Presidential debate, JD Vance stated that migration is driving up Americans’ housing prices. However, establishment media has been distorting his argument, moving the goalposts, changing the subject, and downplaying their tacit admissions that migration does indeed drive up housing costs for Americans. Their evasion and obfuscation seem to be intended to defend Democrats from Vance’s politically powerful charge that President Joe Biden’s open border policies are causing a crisis in the US housing market.
Vance argued that migrants are competing with middle-class Americans for housing, pushing up prices as they compete against Americans. Housing experts almost unanimously recognize that migrants need housing and will raise prices as they compete against Americans. A study published in the Journal of Housing Economics found that a one percentage point increase in the immigrant share of the local population raises house price appreciation by approximately 7 percent.
In addition, a report from Moody’s Analytics states that nationally, the asking rent is now 20% above its pre-pandemic levels, with more than half of all renters allocating over 30% of their income to rent and utilities. The report also notes that an influx of immigrants into a particular MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) can generate native out-migration into neighboring MSAs, leading to middle-class flight in non-diverse school districts with few migrants.
Despite these findings, some media outlets have downplayed the political issue by diverting the subject to rents – even though rising rents are more housing costs for Americans and create incentives for landlords to pay higher prices for middle-class family homes before converting them into rent-sharing apartments for many more poor migrants.
Overall, Vance’s argument that migration is driving up Americans’ housing prices cannot be ignored. The establishment media’s attempts to discredit his claims only serve to highlight the political nature of their coverage and the fact that they are willing to ignore the evidence in favor of protecting the Democratic party’s open border policies.