Builders to benefit from targeting immigrant homebuyers
Builders to benefit from targeting immigrant homebuyers
By Mary Tyler March
• April 13, 2017
Dive Brief:
- Immigrants to the U.S. want to buy into single-family homeownership and are more likely to do so the longer they are in the country, according to a study by the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing.
- This group typically looks to suburban markets for jobs and a lower cost of living. As a result, the suburbs are home to high- and low-income immigrant households.
- In addition to purchasing new-construction properties, immigrants are also likely to consider existing homes — a category in which sales are expected to increase as baby boomers downsize.
Dive Insight:
The ULI found that immigrants helped the U.S. housing market recover more quickly following the Great Recession as they increased demand for housing in some of the hardest-hit areas, like Buffalo, NY. As it stands, immigration policy will likely influence the overall housing market and its continued recovery.
A recent report by Trulia found that 18% of all foreign-born households owned a home within five years of moving to the U.S., while 59.1% owned their homes within a decade. That’s just under the national homeownership rate of 63.7% in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Immigrants from Latin America stand to be a key driver of housing activity. The number of Hispanic homeowners has grown by 2.8 million since 2000, compared to an 85,000-person drop in non-Hispanic owners during that time, according to a March 2016 report from the Hispanic Wealth Project and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. The demographic is expected to comprise more than 50% of U.S. household formations between 2020 and 2030, according to the Urban Institute.
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