Casey B. Mulligan is an economics professor at the University of Chicago.

The recent housing price report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight that home prices increased significantly between December and January may portend that the market will return to normal on its own. Just in case it cannot, Richard S. Lefrak and A. Gary Shilling proposed last week in The Wall Street Journal that housing prices could be increased by giving green cards to foreigners who buy a home in the United States. At its best, the proposal is a Trojan horse for opening the gates to immigration.

Edward Glaeser has effectively argued that, thanks to a housing “bubble,â€