An illustration of one of the many benefits of restricting immigration is currently being played in real time: rent is falling as more migrants leave. As HUD secretary Scott Turner tweeted this week:
6 months of ZERO illegals released into our country. 2 million illegals removed. Rents drop for the fourth straight month. Coincidence? I think not!
As CNBC reported on Dec. 2:
The national median rent for apartments fell 1% in November from October, and now stands at $1,367, according to Apartment List. It was the fourth consecutive month-over-month decline. Apartment rents are down 1.1% from November 2024 and have fallen 5.2% from their 2022 peak.
A day later, Vice-President JD Vance retweeted Turner’s post, adding:
The connection between illegal immigration and skyrocketing housing costs is as clear as day. We are proud to be moving in the right direction. Still so much to do.
This is not news to economists, of course, regardless of their political leanings. A group of Danish economists published a report in December that verifies the link between levels of immigration and rents, saying:
More specifically, we find that a one percentage point increase in the local immigration influx over a five-year horizon relative to the local population in the base year 1995 leads to an average increase of approximately 6 percent and 11 percent in private rental prices and house prices at the municipal level, respectively, during the same period. [Emphasis added.]
For more, see Breitbart News.