Why Cities Should Be Leading the Push for Immigration Reform

Dylan Matthews over at the Washington Post has a good summary of some interesting new research from Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor comparing the immigration rates across America at the county level with local housing values. Vigdor's conclusion: The greater the number of immigrants in a county, the higher the home values there (each of the 40 million immigrants in the U.S. adds 11.5 cents to the value of the average home in the county).

Broadly, this implies that immigrants help boost housing markets, in much the same way that they've been shown in the past to shore up aging populations where large numbers of workers are retiring out of the workforce. And they've had the greatest impact boosting the housing market in areas that could use it most – specifically, in shrinking Rust Belt cities, or in the deteriorating neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas where it's elsewhere unaffordable to live.