What impact does immigration have on neighborhood dynamics? While there is evidence of a strong positive effect of immigration on average housing values at the metropolitan area level, we do not know much about its relative impact at the neighborhood level. Immigration raises the demand for housing in the metropolitan areas where immigrants concentrate, but immigrant enclaves may be perceived by some natives as relatively less attractive neighborhoods. Within metropolitan areas, we find evidence that housing prices have grown relatively more slowly in areas of dense immigrant settlement. We propose three nonexclusive explanations for this fact: changes in quality, reverse causality (immigrants are attracted by areas where housing prices are declining in relative terms), or the hypothesis that natives find immigrant enclaves relatively less attractive. We find that the three explanations are quantitatively important. We deploy a “social diffusion” model based on a gravity equation that predicts the number of new immigrants in a neighborhood using past densities of the foreign-born in the surrounding neighborhoods. We use the predictions of this “diffusion” model to instrument for the actual number of new immigrants in a census tract. Subject to the validity of our instruments, the evidence is consistent with a causal interpretation of a modest impact from growing immigration density to relatively slower housing price appreciation, but this impact is smaller than what OLS results would suggest. Further results indicate that these results may be more driven by the fact that immigrants are of low socio-economic status than by nationality per se. Given the growing demographic importance of immigration in the US, the results do not bode well for the expeditious disappearance of the new “immigrant ghetto.”
1010 Affordable Housing Amazon Amenitization Architecture Artificial Intelligence Asia Australia automation Autonomous Vehicles bonds Borrowing Constraints Brexit California Canada Capital Business China Co-Working Environment coastal markets cold storage Colombia Commercial Brokerage Commercial Real Estate commissions Congestion consumer bias covid-19 CRE credit card market Credit Default Swaps Credit Insurance Credit Risk Transfers Culture Data Analytics data centers Data Collection Technology Debt Market Demand Demographics Density Development Discrete Choice disruption Diversity drones e-Commerce Economic Corridors economic policy economics education election studies Equity Funds Equity Market Ethnic Factors Europe Fannie Mae financial asset management Foreclosures Foreign Policy France Freddie Mac general equilibrium Global global economy Global Financial Crisis Globalization great depression Great Recession healthy buildings Hedonic hospitality Housing & Residential housing boom Housing Disease housing prices Housing Supply Identity Income Inequality India inflation Inter-generational mobility interest rates Investing jobs labor market Lagging Regions land use regulation Language life sciences Macroeconomics malls Market Pricing megacities Microeconomics Migration Minimum Payments Mixed-Use Mobility moral hazard mortgage insurance mortgage market Mortgage Rates Mortgages Multi-family Nation Building Non-Traditional Mortgages Office Market office sector pension funds Placed Based Policies Political Risk Price Discovery Private Equity Business public health public policy Public Schools real estate brokerage Real Estate Investment Real Estate Investment Trusts Recession Rental Retail Retirement reverse mortgages Risk Adjustment risk management risk-shifting robotics single family housing Slums Sorting South America Spatial Regions spillover effect stimulus package Sub-Prime Mortgages Supply Chains Sustainability Technology telecommunications trade transportation unemployment United States Urban Urbanization Warehouse welfare work from home