How the Trump Administration’s Pause on Immigrant Visas May Affect Rental Demand

A new pause on immigrant visa applications could have long-term implications for the U.S. housing market, housing experts say.

The U.S. State Department last week announced a pause on processing all immigrant visa applications, which allow recipients to move permanently to the U.S. It's the latest in a series of changes to visas for those who study or work in the United States legally.

President Donald Trump's administration has pointed to the housing market to help justify its crackdown on all kinds of immigration. Major cities often rely on immigration for their workforce, but at least one Fed study indicated illegal immigration may have driven up housing costs during the Biden administration.

For comparison, the government averaged about 47,000 immigrant visas per month in fiscal year 2023. The current pause is reportedly temporary, so that overseas consular staff can receive new training on policy changes that ensure that new immigrants don't become a "public charge," or a burden on government resources.

The Trump administration's broader immigration crackdown compounds slowing population growth, especially in large cities, but also in economically stagnant areas. Slowing immigration could reduce housing price inflation but may also increase the cost of building, some data suggests.

About 22% of all U.S. rental households are headed by a foreign resident, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About 87% of recent immigrants are renters at first, says Realtor.com® senior economist Jiayi Xu.

"Even after settling in longer, 44% of all foreign-born-headed households remained renters as of 2024, suggesting immigration provides a stable, ongoing source of rental demand rather than a short-term one," Xu says.

Visa pause puts a 'speed limit on the economy'

Eric Finnigan, vice president of demographics research for John Burns Research and Consulting, notes that immigrant visas bring about 40,000 to 60,000 people into the country legally each month.

Restrictions on this kind of legal immigration is akin to a "speed limit on the economy," he says.

The areas with large shares of international residents are likely to see the quickest impact, including Florida, California, Texas, and New York. Immigrant visas include visas for family-based or employment-based immigration to the U.S. for long-term or permanent residency.

"Fewer people are moving in," Finnigan says. "And for many people here legally, many are thinking about do they want to stay here. Or maybe when the policy is more friendly to consider reentering. But the enforcement apparatus to increase legal removals has ramped up."

Often, these programs bring new workforce into underserved areas that struggle to find it domestically, Finnigan adds. That also means immigrants are moving to areas whose populations are stagnant or declining, and contributing to the local economy.

Realtor.com reached out to the State Department to request more details on the latest visa pause.

Impact on the housing market

Finnigan also argues that assuming a pause on visas might help housing affordability would be wrong, because people on visas who live and work in the country contribute to those economies. He adds that legal immigrants also make long-term investments, like buying homes.

"This kind of cultural buyer is uncertain and very risk-averse. The last thing you want to do is buy a home and own U.S. real estate when you aren't confident you will be able to stay in the country long-term," he says.

Immigration enforcement that targets legal immigrants will affect the economies in these same areas, he says, because "people staying home aren't going to restaurants or stores; they're hunkering down."

Home purchases by foreign buyers, a category that includes both foreign nationals living abroad and non-U.S. citizens who are recent immigrants, declined sharply this year.

From April 2025 through March 2026, international buyers closed on 67,100 existing homes nationwide, down 14% year over year, marking the second-lowest transaction level since 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors® 2025 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report. 

This cohort of real estate clients invested $45.3 billion in U.S. homes, representing a decline of 19%, or $11 billion, from the previous 12-month period. Five states remain popular among foreign buyers: Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey, and Georgia.

International students on visas

U.S. population growth has slowed overall, but international migration remains a key driver—even as net immigration levels have begun to cool.

"There has been a real sea change in the past few years with how we govern and treat people coming into the country," says Finnigan. "The policy from 2024, where we had relatively open borders, has really been flipped on its head."

A lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 2.3 million international students and professionals on F, J, and I visas. DHS sought to end a protection known as "duration of status," which allows these people to remain in the country for the duration of their programs, as opposed to a set timetable.

Even a 10% drop in enrollment among 1.4 million nonimmigrant students would cost those institutions up to $3 billion in revenue, the suit states. Over 10 years, restrictions that stonewall international students could cost the U.S. $220 billion to $439 billion in productivity growth.

The Association of International Educators' fall 2026 outlook estimated a tighter student visa policy will cause the steepest economic losses in California, at $499.6 million. New York would miss out on $470.3 million; Massachusetts and Michigan would lose $284 million each; and Texas would lose $199.1 million.

Xu notes that limiting paths to legal immigration also costs the economy in STEM workforce and innovations. For instance, the Association of American Universities showed that international student applications to doctoral programs declined by 21%.

"Taken together, these changes signal a broader tightening of U.S. immigration policy," Xu says. "With all these new restrictions and uncertainties, international students and skilled workers may just choose another country to live and work."

The other way immigration restrictions affect housing

Second-generation Texas homebuilder Mario Guerro is a Trump voter, but he has called on the administration to stop raiding construction sites, warning of a work slowdown.

The CEO of the South Texas Homebuilders Association says workers are fearful to come to the jobsite because of a "strong wave of enforcement." That's meant jobs are slowing down. Some home projects are taking longer as key subcontractors, such as concrete or framing crews, run short on workers.

He worries heavy-handed enforcement is slowing down an industry that was already facing labor shortages, driving up construction prices. By November 2024, there were a record 3 million immigrants working in construction—31% of that industry's labor force. The National Association of Home Builders found those workers are concentrated in the Southwest and East Coast.

"Subcontractors are having a difficult time finding labor that would work," Guerro says. "Even labor on the field right now with proper documentation fear they could be apprehended because they're taking everyone, with proper paperwork and also without. That's causing a labor shortage."

Guerro says he voted for Trump. He thinks the country's education system places too much emphasis on college and too many students overlook well-paying trades jobs.

But changing that system could take 10 to 15 years, and in the meantime, people who have been working in the construction trades for five, 10, and 15 years have been building lives here. Naturalized citizenship usually takes five or more years.

"It would be good as a nation to give some sort of visa or legal status in the U.S. for these folks, because they have earned it by working here," says Guerro. "They don't have any criminal history, they're not rapists and gang members. It would only make the country we love so much better."