Passage of immigration reform could be a boon to the Gulf Shores real estate and mortgage markets over the next decade.
How Gulf Shores Real Estate Could Benefit
If Congress approves legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) expects the country's pool of home buyers to swell by three million, generating some $500 billion in new mortgages. The $500 billion in real estate transactions would also generate $25 billion in mortgage origination and refinance income.
The estimates are based on the assumption that some six million unauthorized immigrants would probably pursue legalization if given the opportunity. That's a little more than half of the total number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, which the Pew Research Hispanic Center estimates to be 11.1 million. Almost 60 percent of those are Mexicans. The association calculated that about three million of those who would pursue legalization would also buy homes.
Gary Acosta, the chief executive of the real estate association said recently, "It's not what we expect to happen in a year or two, but over 5 to 10 years. These are people who can't get mortgages right now, and they're primarily living in the shadows."
Hispanic households are already a strong force in the nation's housing market. A previous report from the association found that from 2000 to 2012, the net growth in new-owner Hispanic households was 58 percent, versus 5 percent for the rest of the American population.
Stay tuned to our Gulf Shores real estate blog as we monitor this ongoing reform effort.