Some immigrants, even those with a valid work permit, who were planning to buy a house, are sceptic nowadays. A few even withdrew their offers. For example in San Francisco, an Indian software engineer cancelled an offer for a house at $900,000. This is not the only case in the US, immigrants do not feel safe enough to make the biggest investment of their lifetime in a country where they might not be so welcome anymore. This fear could hurt to a certain extent the residential real estate market.

Definitely, with Trump’s new legislations, immigrants do not feel at home in the US anymore. They cannot make long-term projects because as soon as the President signs something, everything can change for them.

Even the employees with a green card or a work visa like HB-1 are worried about Trump’s decisions. The housing market in cities like Miami, the Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York is at risk. If Trump implements his regulations, we could expect a massive deportation. In this case, there will be a decrease in demand and home prices in the residential area would drop drastically.

A third of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the US lives in a property they own or a friend owns. Some lending companies are on the watch as well because they specialize in undocumented immigrants making them pay higher interest rate loans.

One the other side, Russian buyer could fuel back the market. The Russians were holding back since the sanctions imposed to them after the Crimea issues. Since Trump became president Russian buyers have increased both in Miami and in New York.

Bottom line is that we just have to wait a little bit till the situation calms down. Nevertheless we are sure that if regulations are harder on hiring foreigners then the housing market will take a hit at some point.