ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY THE UNIVERSITY of Southern California's (USC's) Lusk Center for Real Estatecolor>, Los Angeles, both foreign-born and U.S.-born migrants who move to one of 14 "emerging gateway cities" have lower homeownership rates than households that move within a metropolitan area. The emerging gateway cities are Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Sacramento, California; Seattle; Tampa, Florida; West Palm Beach, Florida; and the Washington, D.C./Baltimore corridor.
"Past housing research focused on the established gateway metropolitan areas, where 50 percent of all U.S. foreign-born population lives," said Gary Painter, the Lusk Center's associate professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning and Developmentcolor>. "Our study focused for the first time on the emerging gateway metropolitan areas. These cities have experienced large-scale population increases from immigrants moving directly from overseas or migrating domestically from larger cities, as well as an influx of U.S.-born households migrating domestically. While we assumed that lower housing costs in these emerging markets might improve homeownership rates, the result in fact suggest that leaving established gateways does not provide migrants a boost in homeownership attainment. They need time to establish themselves in the labor market, achieve an income level that makes homeownership possible and find a home that is affordable."
The study, by Painter and graduate student Zhou Yu, compares 1990 and 2000 U.S. census data. The researchers found that immigration patterns changed over the last decade: While previously most immigrants came to the United States through one of the six "gateway" cities of New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego, large numbers of immigrants are migrating from overseas to one of the 14 fast-growing emerging gateways located nationwide.
According to the Lusk Center, as past research has shown, recent immigrants have worse housing outcomes than existing residents when they first arrive in the United States, and the deficit persists for 10 to 15 years, diminishing over time. The decision of immigrants to locate in high-cost cities explains part of the homeownership gap, as does national origin. Immigrants from second- and third-world countries are likely to possess less education and fewer financial assets and are initially less settled and less adapted, making them more mobile. Over time, the negative impact of immigrant status fades away as households assimilate into metropolitan areas. "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," said Painter.
The study also discovered factors that improve the housing outcomes for immigrants. Lusk Center researchers assumed that living in crowded conditions is typically related to lower homeownership, which proved true in the results of the 1990 census. By 2000, however, multiple residents in a household, producing multiple incomes, had become a positive predictor of homeownership, as immigrants are pooling their incomes to finance home purchases, the study found. "In particular, Latino immigrants fare better than others in crowded conditions, and Asians likewise benefit from having additional incomes in the household," Painter said.
"We also found that while it remains true that homeownership rises with age, younger immigrants are more likely to own a home that U.S.-born households of the same age," Painter added. Previous research indicated that these immigrants have strong upward mobility and make homeownership a priority in their goal to attain status in this country, he said. Early homeownership is less of a priority for their U.S.-born counterparts, according to the study.
Because immigration and migration provide engines of population growth and new labor market entrants, Painter said his research will continue to focus on the long-term impacts of large-scale migration on U.S. housing and labor markets.