[kjkjadksj]

Honestly that would be fixed with expanded immigration. Look at places where the limited immigrants we have had in recent years primarily ended up and have changed the demography, like LA county or Miami-Dade county, and they don’t look like those midwestern or great plains cities. In fact there are almost no vacant parcels anywhere today, with majority latino populations now reflecting the recent waves of immigration.

[carom]

LA has extremely dysfunctional housing policy. A wave of immigration does nothing but increase demand for housing and drive up prices on rather limited stock. It has not lead to an increase in housing stock or better commercial districts. Adding more people who don't really speak the language laws are written in doesn't change the laws that prevent you from building vibrant cities.

There is very little mixed use. Majority of the city is zoned single family. The only reason there are no parking minimums is because the California changed that law. It has nothing to do with expanded immigration. LA, despite the immigration, is in massive need of a zoning overhaul to build a vibrant city. Very little is walkable, it is very car-centric, and the zoning is the strong opposition to all of this.

[talldatethrow]

There are at least 15 million illegals currently in the US. If they all left, there'd be atleast 3-4 million housing units freed up instantaneously, mostly in areas already with hard to get housing. It should be pretty obvious what that would do to housing prices.

[electrondood]

Ah yes, the "this country is full" trope.

Also, "illegal immigrant" is the term. No human being is inherently illegal.

You seriously think each person who is here illegally is renting or owning their own unit of housing?

[verve_rat]

The US might not be full, but it does seem like you have run out of houses?

[talldatethrow]

No, I don't. Which is why I changed 15 million into 3-4M housing units...

The country is not full. But the places with jobs have more renters than rentable units.. which is why a 2br costs $3k a month.

You got 2 out of 3 points completely wrong, and your other was a pedantic point about wording. You should probably slow down and think before discussing this subject.

[ljsprague]

You're confusing correlation with causation. Immigrants are more likely to go where there are jobs.

[bluGill]

Immigrants have a lot of motivations. Jobs are one, but unless the immigrant was recruited for a specific job (which is common) it isn't primary. There are jobs everywhere, even in blighted cities.

Immigrants with no particular job in mind look for places where the cost of living is low: they tend to have much worse job prospects than normal, so a minimum wage job in a low cost of living area is better life than double minimum wage in a high cost of living area.

Immigrants often have poor English skills (or whatever the local language is). They often are used to food not common in the country. So if they can find a community of other immigrants that means people they can comfortably talk to, and also makes it more likely that someone can figure out the process of getting food they like into local stores.