Vance Says Illegal Immigration Under Biden Drove Surge in Housing Costs

Vice President JD Vance said in an interview this week that mass illegal immigration during Joe Biden’s term played a central role in driving up rent and home prices across the United States.

Speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Vance said record levels of illegal immigration created a direct strain on the housing market, leaving many Americans — especially first-time buyers — priced out.

“To me [this] is maybe the most important because I care so much about our young people being able to afford a good life, a lot of young people are saying, ‘Housing is way too expensive,’” Vance said.

“Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who are taking houses, which ought by right go to American citizens and at the same time, we weren’t building enough new houses to begin with even for the population we have.”

Vance said the current administration is working to expand home construction while carrying out strict interior immigration enforcement to help stabilize housing costs.

“What we’re doing is trying to make it easier to build houses, to build factories, and things like that so that people have good jobs,” Vance said.

“We’re also getting all of those illegal aliens out of our country and you’re already seeing it starting to pay some dividends.”

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He also said improving affordability depends on strengthening wages for American workers.

“That is where the Trump economy, I think objectively … is just doing better than any economy in 50-60 years,” Vance said.

He added that the president aims to “make an economy for people who can afford to buy the things that they need — the best way to do that is good jobs and good wages.”

Vance’s comments came as new international research reinforces the link between immigration levels and housing cost spikes.

In September, a group of economists in Denmark published findings that immigration significantly increases rents and home prices for local residents.

“Our results suggest large and positive impacts of immigration on private rental prices and house prices at the municipal level,” the researchers wrote.

“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.”

Their work adds to years of published studies pointing to the same conclusion.

Last year, Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies testified before Congress that “a 5-percentage-point increase in the recent immigrant share of a metro area’s population is associated with a 12-percent increase in the average U.S.-born household’s rent, relative to their income.”

Vance said the administration will continue pairing expanded housing construction with immigration enforcement to address the underlying pressures on the market.