Houston's Housing Market Feels Immigration Policy Impact

Marketplace published a story this week on immigration and housing so you know I had to check it out! Pew Research has indicated 1.2MM immigrants have left the US in the first half of 2025.

This is a labor force reduction roughly equivalent to the size of Dallas, TX. The Marketplace story focuses on Houston, TX and the housing market, which it claims was propped up in large part by refugee and immigrant resettlement.

Some bits I found interesting:

• Apartment vacancies spike: Low-rent complexes see empty units after ICE raids
• International buyers disappear: 24% year-over-year drop in Houston home searches from users outside U.S./Canada (August 2025)
• Reverse migration: Real estate agents report Americans leaving Texas for Mexico, Belize, and Panama and seeking second citizenships due to "political uncertainty"
• Economic domino effect: Harris County could see first population drop since the 1980s, threatening sales tax revenues, apartment occupancy rates, and broader economic stability