The American Dream increasingly feels like a distant mirage for many people, and few issues symbolize that distance as much as the housing crisis.
Skyrocketing rents, average home prices that have ballooned past $500,000, and young families squeezed into shoebox apartments. The debate is not whether it is happening, but what is the cause and how to remedy it.
Vice President J.D. Vance recently cut through the noise on this issue with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview with a blunt assessment: the mess is directly tied to the Biden administration’s unchecked mass migration. The vice president is absolutely right. While many political issues are complex, this is basic economics. Excessive immigration, both legal and illegal, floods the market with demand while supply lags, driving up costs for everyone.
Vance’s comments resonated because they acknowledge the elephant in the room. Under Joe Biden, the U.S. had an unprecedented influx of migrants: over 10 million border encounters since 2021, including millions who have been released into the interior. Those millions need roofs over their heads. And as a recent report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform explains, that demand is overwhelming our housing stock.
The FAIR analysis, titled “Housing Affordability is an Immigration Issue,” shows that international migration into the U.S. exceeded 3 million people in 2024, accounting for 84% of population growth. That’s equivalent to adding the population of Chicago, all clamoring for homes. Yet, housing construction has flatlined, hampered by regulatory red tape, labor shortages, and skyrocketing material costs. The result is a national housing deficit of over 4.7 million units, exacerbated by this demographic surge.
Dig into the data, and the correlation is undeniable. Home prices have surged 26% since Biden took office, with rents climbing 20% in major metros. In states like Texas and Florida, hotbeds for migrant resettlement, the report highlights how immigrant-driven population booms have pushed vacancy rates to historic lows. FAIR projects that without curbing immigration, we’ll need an additional 1.5 million housing units annually just to keep pace – units we simply aren’t building.
Illegal immigration and anti-borders activists have scrambled to muddy the waters, trotting out tired, disproven tropes to deflect blame. They cherry-pick studies claiming immigrants “boost the economy” without mentioning the net drain on public resources or the wage suppression for low-skilled Americans. Groups like the United Nations and various sanctuary-city mayors decry any linkage between migration and housing as “anti-migrant rhetoric” and “hate speech,” insisting the real culprits are greedy developers and zoning laws.
This tactic is a classic bait-and-switch: frame the debate as racism rather than resource allocation. But economics doesn’t care about intentions. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. Pour millions into a finite market without expanding supply, and prices soar – full stop. Pretending otherwise doesn’t build houses, it just leaves families of citizens and legal residents on waiting lists.
The Trump-Vance administration has effectively sealed the border from illegal entries in just a few months, a huge component of addressing the problem. Still underway is the arduous process of deporting the masses that Biden and Kamala Harris allowed to pour into the country illegally. Pair that with more controlled legal migration and prioritizing American workers over their foreign competitors, and the demand portion of the housing shortage issue will lessen dramatically.
These moves create ripple effects that would transform communities. More affordable housing means families can settle down, start businesses, and build generational wealth. Wages, too, would rise as the glut of cheap foreign labor shrinks. Less competition for jobs means more bargaining power for the working class.
Such a change would also result in safer communities. Porous borders and destructive sanctuary policies have correlated with spikes in fentanyl deaths and urban crime as cartels exploit the chaos. In addition to creating housing for more Americans, more responsible immigration policies would foster safer streets, stronger schools, and neighborhoods where kids play without fear.
Critics will wail about “humanitarian crises” allegedly caused by a return to law and order with immigration, but it’s time to show compassion to our fellow Americans first. The U.S. can’t be the world’s landlord while we’re evicting our own people. Vance’s comments are a wake-up call to a policy that’s failed spectacularly and for too long. By reining in the flood, we not only fix housing but also reclaim prosperity for those who’ve played by the rules. It’s not anti-immigrant; it’s pro-American.
Americans weary of $2,000 studio rents and “sold” signs on every corner know the score, and the vice president has voiced it plainly: Mass migration under Biden was not benevolence, but a wrecking ball to affordability. It’s time to rebuild, but on our terms this time.