DENVER — The Trump administration is attributing lower home prices in the Denver area to mass deportations.
In a news release, the administration said, “Through mass deportations, the Trump Administration is freeing up resources, revitalizing opportunity, and restoring safety — delivering tangible results that put American citizens first.”
The news release named 14 cities, including Denver, claiming those cities have the largest undocumented immigrant populations and states that those cities saw home prices decline year over year.
The administration states Denver saw a 3.4% decrease in median home list price, attributing this to mass deportations, but the news release does not provide further explanation.
Undocumented immigrants can buy homes in the United States; however, it’s unclear how many own homes and how many of those homes are in the Denver-metro area. A recent Redfin report also found a 3.4% decrease in median home prices in Denver, while SoFi reports a more modest decrease of 1.2% in home values.
“So there are a couple of things that are leading to the decrease. One is going to be the interest rates. Another is going to be that there is so much inventory out there right now and the buyer demand has really softened,” April Denmon, owner of the Denmon Group said. “I am a Denver native that's been doing real estate for 20 years, and it's absolutely a market correction.”
Denmon said the slight median home price decrease in the Denver metro isn’t necessarily leading to a seller’s market.
“There is so much inventory because right now a lot of homes are sitting on the market longer. A lot of sellers are getting price reductions. We're seeing sellers give out concessions; that's going to be a credit to the buyer. So right now, there are just a lot of homes sitting and a lot of sellers wanting to sell, but buyers are just not there. So, we have a lot of inventory, right?” Denmon said.
Denmon said this differs from the housing market during the pandemic, when interest rates were lower.
“I teach first-time home buyer classes. So, when I was teaching those classes during the pandemic, there was a time when we had 912 houses on the market. And when I say on the market, that's going to be the whole Denver Metro area, 912 houses. So, if you put your home on the market, homes were going for $100,000 over $150,000 over the asking price at that time. I was working with buyers and sellers, and it was one of the toughest markets that we had been in. At that time, interest rates were three to three and a half percent,” Denmon said. “When you go back and look at the market in late 2023, the interest rates... jumped up to 8% and up. So that's a huge difference. So right now, buyers are having to pay a little bit of a higher interest rate, but they can get the house they want.”
The Trump administration’s news release also stated that mass deportations have led to more “native born” Americans gaining employment in the U.S.
