Migrating households, whether foreign- or U.S.-born, are less likely to own their home if they move to one of 14 "emerging gateway cities" in the United States than if they move within their current metropolitan area, according to a recent study conducted by Gary Painter and Zhou Yu of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estatecolor>. The researchers found that immigrants increasingly are taking up residency in emerging gateway cities--such as Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, and Orlando--either directly from their homes overseas or from another domestic city. This changing immigrant pattern is attributed in part to lower housing costs in these emerging gateway cities, which also include Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, Seattle, Tampa, the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area, and West Palm Beach. However, Painter and Yu found that homeownerships rates among recent immigrants in emerging gateway cities generally are lower than homeownership rates among immigrants in the traditional gateway cities of New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The researchers note that immigrants may have weak educational backgrounds, fewer financial benefits, and may require more time to get settled when they move to an emerging gateway city. "Because 47 percent of immigrants have entered through the 14 emerging gateways in the past 10 years, immigration has a greater impact on homeownership in these cities," Painter explains.
December 15, 2004