Reply #4: Key word helped [View All]

Yes, illegal aliens in CERTAIN places (but not others) put pressure on the bottom of the rental market, and displace citizen poor people to other areas which ought to have driven property values down in those areas, and would have in 1950 when the suburbs were an open ended release valve.

Two operative factors were the 100% No Doc investor loans and the loose lending to the owner occupied market which had the effect of stuffing money into the pockets of the consumer. Those consumers were not illegal aliens. Enabling all those people to purchase property that they would never have qualified for under standard formulas had the effect of a lot of money chasing the product. Add in the hysteria of middle class people willing to pay way too much for a house, because they feared getting shut out, and you have the disaster we now see.

Another, often over looked factor is zoning. Prior to zoning laws, the market shifted to the needs. Expensive neighborhoods became ghettos when the tastes of the rich changed. Residential areas became commercial, and commercial areas became residential. The tony shopping and residential districts now famous for their desirability or exclusivity would never have come about if there had been the modern zoning laws when they were built. Zoning laws are essentially an application of suburban mentality on an urban landscape. If our ancestors had been forbidden from living in the backs of their stores, or putting a store in their living rooms, virtually none of the chic walking business districts we know and love would have come into being.