Immigrants underpin the U.S. housing market

Immigrants real estate buyers have underpinned the housing market across the United States in the last decade and will continue to drive demand at least until the end of 2020 , according to a new study.

Foreign buyers accounted for most of the growth in property ownership in states traditionally populated by immigrants and offset a decline in purchases by Americans by birth in other areas , according to a report prepared by demographers at the University of South California Mortgage Bankers Association of the country.

Specifically , the number of homeowners in the U.S. who were born in other countries has increased every decade since 1990. Immigrants, representing 13% of the population, constituted 39% of the net growth in homeownership between 2000 and 2010. In the decade from 2010 to 2020 , representing 36 % of this growth, the report projected .

"The group of home buyers is much more diverse than in the past ," said Mike Fratantoni , vice director of research of the association. "The demand for immigrants is far more important nationally ( ... ) of what an ordinary person would ."

Immigrants are more likely to buy a home once they are installed and become more financially stable in the U.S. , usually after having rented for a few years . Among Hispanics who came to the U.S. during the 80's , the home ownership rose from 15 % in 1990 to 53% in 2010, and is projected to reach 61 % by 2020 , the report said.

Although the growth of immigrant populations in California and New York have fallen below their highs of 80 and 90 , respectively , the growth of home purchases by foreigners rose to record rates between 2000 and 2010. During this period , immigrants constituted 82 % jump in home ownership in California and 65 % in New York.

In Texas and Florida, the number of foreign property owners continued to climb between 2000 and 2010 despite the expansion in the immigrant population leveled . In the same decade , immigrants also accounted for a significant share of ownership of real estate in states like Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan, the report says .

In the southeastern U.S. , which began to experience a wave of immigration in the 90s , foreigners accounted for 34 % of the increase homeownership in the state of Georgia and 25% in North Carolina during the decade completed in 2010.

Recent immigrants are playing similar to the generation of baby boomers role , as people born in the U.S. is known in the two years following the Second World War and in the 70 and 80 entered the large mass housing market decades , says study co-author John Pitkin , an associate researcher with the group studying population dynamics at the University of southern California.

The Ruy Martins Brazilian , who arrived in Atlanta , Georgia, in 1999 , rented a two-bedroom apartment for two years while working in the construction sector and cleaning houses with his wife. In 2001 , the couple got a mortgage to buy a house with three bedrooms. After that Martins opened a business outsourcing restoring homes for insurance companies , bought a bigger house in 2007 .

"We live a life -style ," said Martins , 41 and father of three children. Now rented the smaller house.

The study of the Mortgage Bankers Association , which is based on census data does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Undocumented immigrants often get a mortgage using an individual tax identification number , known as ITIN for its acronym in English, or through an intermediary.

The trend toward home ownership among immigrants contributed to a slowdown in rental rates after 2000 , the study found .

However, the rate of home ownership among immigrants remains below that of the native USA: 52.4 % vs 67 %.

And after the housing collapse , a study conducted last year by the Pew Hispanic Center found that the sharp decline in housing prices left 28% of Latino-owned housing, including many immigrants, owing more on mortgage payments than their homes were worth twice the percentage of homeowners in the general population .

Still, " the expansion of demand for real estate among those born outside the U.S. was vital to prevent the recession was even worse ," says the report.