How Have Immigrants Adapted to the Housing Markets of Mid-size Metropolitan Areas in the U.S.?

Zhou Yu, University of Utah
Gary Painter, University of Southern California

Immigrants, as a dynamic group, have started to move in large numbers to places that had few immigrants, greatly affecting the local demographic makeup and the housing markets. To better understand how immigrants have adapted to the hinterland housing markets, this study will examine a sample of 60 mid-size metropolitan areas that have seen a large growth in the immigrant share of the total population. Using data from the 2000 decennial census and the 2005 ACS microdata, we will analyze differences in housing market outcomes for areas that had relatively little immigration, and contrast it with those that already had a large immigrant population. We expect to find that immigrants started low but have improved their housing consumption more rapidly than similar native-born households. Latino immigrants fare better in areas of relatively more Latinos. Younger immigrants are particularly successful, while there is surprisingly little difference between Latino and Asian immigrants.