Immigrants Can Help Fix the Housing Bubble

WSJ ^ | 03/17/09 | RICHARD S. LEFRAK and A. GARY SHILLING

[TigerLikesRooster]

Immigrants Can Help Fix the Housing Bubble

By RICHARD S. LEFRAK and A. GARY SHILLING

The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president's $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer.

The federal bailout forces taxpayers to subsidize overextended homeowners who bet on ever-rising house prices and used their abodes as ATMs, and it doesn't get to the basic problem -- the huge inventory of excess houses. We estimate that 2.4 million houses over and above normal working inventories are left over from the 1996-2005 housing bubble. That's a lot, considering the long-term average annual construction of 1.5 million single- and multi-family units.

Excess inventory is the mortal enemy of house prices, which have already fallen 27% since the peak in early 2006. We predict another 14% drop through the end of 2010 if nothing is done to eliminate the surplus.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Dear corrupt Chinese officials, drug lords and Mafiya of the world;

If you buy spare housing at still-inflated price, you can now become proud Americans. We will be eager to relocate you and launder your identity. Please buy lots of Mcmansion.

Sincerely,

American Realtors' Association,
U.S. Department of Treasury,
U.S. Federal Reserve Board,
U.S. Senate and Congress,
White House,
The One and Only Zero.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[ckilmer]

this is cute. 25% of the bad loans were to illegal aliens.

[Wolfie]

Fantastic idea! After all the years of outsourcing the labor, now we can outsource the consumerism. Pretty soon, we won’t need actual Americans at all.

[skeeter]

The main reason I stopped subscribing to the Wall St Journal is their OBSESSION with cheap foreign labor.

[TigerLikesRooster]

I started to read it with huge grains of salt when they started pumping the bubble market beginning in late 90’s.

[BGHater]

Not a new idea from Shilling. They have been pushing this for a while.

How to Solve the Housing Crisis: Let in More Immigrants to Buy Houses

Nice to see it being posted from 'There Shall Be Open Border' WSJ.

[KarlInOhio]

Wasn't one of the contributing factors to the housing bubble bringing in every Mexican who could figure out which end of the hammer to hold to build as many houses as possible? Maybe we can get them to misreport their pay on their loan apps again: "Si, I made 100,000 pesos ... I mean dollars last year" so they can buy half million dollar 800 square foot houses in California.

[skeeter]

I guess the writers have no shame.

Not to mention journalistic integrity.

[TigerLikesRooster]

The guy must be ecstatic to gain such a respectability by publishing it at WSJ. LOL. This is a real life comedy.

[skeeter]

They were building and “buying”. If you call putting nothing down on an interest only variable rate loan “buying”.

[Oldexpat]

Brilliant. They buy a house and qualify for a green card, SS and medicare. That’s a great deal for the taxpayer. We already have enough people sponging off the system.

[GonzoGOP]

Sure, no problem, we have 10% unemployment and your answer is to bring in more people. Oh I can't see any problem with that plan. /sarc

[skeeter]

There are abandoned houses all over CA and no one in a position to address the problem is talking about it.

[DooDahhhh]

I will be willing to bet that your percentage of illegal’s failed loans is terribly low.

[Vaduz]

Barney Frank rubs self congress winks.

[stan_sipple]

For it to work, we’ll need to set the maximum number of residents artificially low, say 50 per 1500 square foot home (sarc)

[stan_sipple]

hope Lou Dobbs gets to cover this nonsense

[Mr. Jeeves]

The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country.

For cash. ;)

[Red in Blue PA]

Do you have numbers to back that up?

Illegals are huge in number, but I cannot see 25% of the mortgages going to them.