Dive Brief:
-
President Barack Obama’s decision to enact immigration reforms could be a boon to the housing recovery, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
-
The action could allow many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to hold jobs and buy homes, a report by the Center noted. The longer an immigrant family lives here, the study said, the more likely it is to form a household and try to buy a home.
-
Foreign-born homeowners have formed one-third of new households in this country since 1994, the report said.
Dive Insight:
Homebuilders and industry associations offered lukewarm support for Obama’s plan to force immigration reforms by executive action.
On the one hand, reforms could make undocumented immigrants legally eligible to work in the construction industry, which suffers from a severe worker shortage. But critics said Obama’s action could stop Congress from taking permanent action on immigration.