The Trump administration has detailed the plans for a sweeping crackdown on the undocumented immigrants, saying that the authorities would deport many more people without court hearings. Trump would lower the bar to include fraud and in some cases, a belief the residents threatened public safety. H1-B visa holders may be the most affected.
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Workers with green cards and work visas under the H1-B program for skilled foreign workers are worried about the possible restrictions. The housing markets at Miami, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, which have the biggest concentrations of foreign-born buyers are mostly at risk .
“If Trump gets the immigration plan he wants, the housing market will get hit harder than any other,” said Alex Nowrasteh, a policy analyst for the libertarian Cato Institute. If “millions of people get deported and more people don’t come in to take their place, then you’ll have downward pressure on home prices, especially in urban areas.”
A third of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. live in a home that they or a family member or friend own, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
Now, some lenders are starting to get nervous. . At the early stages of government loans, lenders can be on the hook in defaults. “We’re proceeding cautiously,” said Jason Madiedo, president and chief executive officer of Las Vegas-based Alterra Home Loans that focuses on mortgages for immigrants, including dreamers and the undocumented.
“If financing dries up and borrowers lose faith, it will mark a major reversal in the market. New arrivals are expected to account for more than a third of growth of homeowners this decade,” according to University of Southern California demographer Dowell Myers.
The 32-year-old Silicon Valley software engineer from India gave up on buying a house because Trump had rattled him and his wife. He moved to the U.S. seven years ago and decided to become a homeowner after marrying a biomedical engineer from his home country a few months ago.
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“We were about to make some offers,” he said. “But we don’t know what news will come out and how that will affect our jobs.”
“All morning clients have been calling me,” real estate agent, Nomita Shahani said. “We don’t know which way it will go, but if Trump keeps making it hard to hire people from oversees, the housing market will take a hit.”
“I just don’t want to take my life savings and commit to a house because even if things go my way with the green card, what if the climate here continues to get more and more aggressive toward immigrants?” said the executive, who is working with real estate brokerage Redfin.
By Premji
