As Donald Trump prepares to take office and implement one of his key campaign promises, deporting immigrants, one question that has been asked is how it could affect the housing market.
Housing of all kinds is in short supply. One of the biggest reasons is that construction of new homes fell sharply during the Great Recession and stayed depressed for years after.
Immigrants make up a significant portion of the construction labor force, and removing them en masse would cripple the industry – not to mention having devastating social and emotional consequences, experts and advocates say.
Despite that, few industry participants have spoken publicly about the potential consequences. So USA TODAY asked the biggest builders in America to weigh in.
Taylor Morrison, NVR Inc., KB Home, and Century Communities Inc. declined to comment. There was no response from D.R. Horton, Lennar Corp., PulteGroup Inc., Meritage, or LGI Homes.
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Clayton Homes referred the inquiry to the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), an industry group. In an emailed statement, Dr. Lesli Gooch, the group’s CEO, said, “MHI is not concerned with President-elect Trump’s plan to enforce the nation’s immigration law. Our factories and our workers comply with the law, and we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to have a critical role in addressing the nation’s housing supply shortage.”
Another group that agreed to speak was the National Association of Home…
