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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing renewed criticism over housing affordability as rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn hit record highs, with conservative commentators arguing that immigration-driven demand is adding pressure to an already tight rental market that the mayor campaigned to ease.
Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s median rents reached $5,295 and $4,350, respectively, in June, according to an analysis conducted by the Corcoran Group, a real estate firm. The most recent available data shows roughly 38% of New Yorker residents were born outside the United States, and about 40% of rentals in the city are occupied by foreign-born individuals, though the data does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigration status.
“You declared yourself a sanctuary city. You ‘welcomed’ hundreds of thousands of illegals. Then you had to find places to put them,” conservative radio host Andrew Wilkow wrote on X, reacting to news of increased rents. “That put pressure on housing supply. Shortages create price increases. It’s pretty simple.”
BIDEN’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SURGE CAUSED HIGHER RENT AND HOME PRICES, FED STUDY FINDS
A 2003 paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that immigration “pushes up rents and housing values in destination cities,” with an immigration inflow equal to 1% of a city’s population associated with about a 1% increase in average rents and housing values. More recently, a paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in March found that a 1% increase in illegal immigrants working in a given area corresponded to a 1.4% increase in rental prices because localities did not build enough new housing to match population growth.
Both papers reflect the authors’ findings and do not represent official positions of the Federal Reserve System or its regional banks.
“Young Americans compete for housing with millions of foreign arrivals,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote on Monday in response to the rent data out of New York City.
‘AMERICAN HOUSES ARE FOR AMERICAN PEOPLE’: TRUMP HOUSING CHIEF INSISTS IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN WILL LOWER COSTS
Between 2020 and 2023, the most recent years available, the share of renter households associated with foreign-born New Yorkers rose from 37% to 40%, according to the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey. The data does not distinguish a resident’s legal status, making it unclear whether illegal immigrants represent an increased share of renters.
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, responding to news of rising rents on Sunday, recommended that the city rezone neighborhoods to allow more homebuilding, invest in affordable housing development, and cut construction regulations to increase housing supply and bring down costs.
Conservative lawyer Mike Davis responded to Levine’s recommendations by asking, “How about deporting illegals?”
AMERICA’S HOUSING MARKET COULD RUN OUT OF SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOMES
The White House claims that declining rental costs in the South and Southwest have been caused by its deportations, a claim disputed by critics who point toward broader market conditions. A March 2024 academic study found that deportations could actually increase overall housing prices by harming the construction industry, though the authors conceded that removing illegal immigrants could also cause housing demand to come down somewhat.
Mamdani campaigned on addressing New York City’s housing crisis by freezing increases for rent-stabilized tenants, building 200,000 new affordable homes and expanding tenant protections. Since taking office, he has successfully frozen rents on rent-stabilized leases, released a housing plan aimed at building and preserving 400,000 affordable homes and moved to expand rental vouchers.
“Zohran Mamdani ‘froze the rent’ and served himself some taxpayer-funded cake,” Red State writer Bonchie posted to X, referring to Mamdani’s celebrating the rent freeze with cake earlier this summer. “Then rents hit an all-time high, vacancy rates reached the highest since COVID, and he proposed a 20% raise for himself. Incredible stuff.”
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Critics argue that rent freezes will lead to increased prices for everyone else and disincentivize property owners from doing more than the bare minimum to maintain units that they aren’t being paid market rate to rent.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.
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