Illegal Immigration Demand Shock: Why Your Rent Skyrocketed Under Biden

When discussing the costs of illegal immigration, it's common to focus on crimes committed by illegal aliens, and that's certainly appropriate; the Trump administration, since January 2025, has largely focused its efforts on the worst of the worst where capture and repatriation are concerned. There are other impacts as well, not the least of which are economic.

Now, a new working paper by the Federal Reserve is laying out the economic impact of the waves of illegal immigration, including making housing prices skyrocket. That directly affects many, if not all, Americans, and it's another after-effect of the Biden administration's callous disregard of the law.

A new Federal Reserve working paper found the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration triggered higher home prices and rents.
The findings arrive as immigration remains a polarizing political issue. Republicans argue former President Joe Biden’s border policies strained housing and public resources, while Democrats say immigration helped ease labor shortages and supported economic growth.
The paper, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, combines immigration court records with government administrative data to measure how the unprecedented wave of illegal immigration between 2021 and 2024 affected local labor and housing markets.

Here's what this work found:

A 1% increase in unauthorized workers relative to a local labor force corresponded with roughly a 1% increase in overall employment, with no evidence the immigration surge reduced average wages. The same 1% increase, however, was associated with a roughly 2.2% rise in home prices and a 1.4% increase in rents. Researchers found little evidence that homebuilding expanded enough to meet the added demand, concluding the influx acted as a housing demand shock in markets where supply was already constrained.
The economists estimate unauthorized immigrant worker flows accounted for about 30% of employment growth, roughly 30% of home-price growth, and about 20% of rent growth in the average metropolitan area between March 2021 and March 2024.
They stress these estimates apply to the average metro area studied and do not suggest immigration was the sole driver of rising housing costs nationwide.

It certainly was not the sole driver. Over-regulation, taxation, and onerous zoning and permitting rules have also had a significant impact, especially in our larger cities.

Now, plenty of Democrats have been whining about the high cost of housing and the deleterious effect on Americans, especially younger people; we've all seen that effect for ourselves, with young people having a harder and harder time affording housing. Don't expect much comment from the Democrats or the legacy media (but I repeat myself) on this piece of that puzzle, though.

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Here's the thing: While a spike in housing costs due (in part) to illegal immigration is another good argument for the crackdown, there's a better, much simpler argument:

It's the law.

The Biden administration, as Democratic administrations have done in the past, seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to ignore federal laws that it found politically problematic. That's not how our system is supposed to work. President Trump and his administration enforce the law, including border control and immigration laws, because they are the law. It's as simple as that. It's not optional. It's not a case of pick and choose. It's the law. We can change it, but we can't ignore it.

Nor should we ignore the positive effects of enforcing these laws, though. Since January 2025, we might note, housing prices have started to moderate; they are still increasing, but the rate of housing cost growth has slowed.

These things don't turn on a dime. But turn, they do.

You may view the entire report here.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

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