[Auracle]

No, although that also would help (though I don't think the downside is worth it).

I'm talking about people up north realizing that massive amounts of immigration isn't exactly great for home/rental pricing. "Build more homes" is easy to say but hard to do - you need skilled workers, there's only so much land in specific areas, NIMBYism, etc. "Reduce immigration" for some is hard to say but in practice is easy to do, and it has the exact same effect.

[7jjjjjjj]

The problem is that people generally have good reasons to immigrate. People don't deserve a lower standard of living just because they weren't born in a first-world country.

[Auracle]

People in our country don't deserve a lower standard of living because other people want to live here either. A country/government exists to help its own people.

Where's the line? How many people should be allowed, and of what caliber? That number is the whole point of having an immigration system.

[supertrope]

If the electorate wants to restrict immigration so be it. But it won't solve housing shortages caused by restrictive zoning. When apartments, duplex, townhomes, condos, etc. are literally illegal this will cause a shortage. Parking minimums mandates, setback requirements, floor area ratio rules, may issue permitting processes push down supply and push up cost.

Just imagine if we banned building new grocery stores or expanding existing ones. Lines would get longer and longer and produce would quickly go out of stock. And then instead of fixing the root of the problem, we banned people from moving to the area due to grocery shortages.

[Auracle]

The thing is I think you city people can't see the forest for the trees. Yes, on a city level zoning/permitting can be an issue.

However, I live in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town to me has a population of 600. Homes that were $300k pre-pandemic are now $500-$600k. Zoning is no issue here. There aren't many places in our country where home prices have gone down or stayed the same.

[supertrope]

When people are priced out of urban cores they select housing in suburbs. When those seeking suburban housing are priced out they bid up the price of rural housing.

There are a lot of immigrants working in construction. Decreased immigration in the past few years has pushed up wages especially in lower wage jobs like construction laborer. Trade wars and the aftershocks of the Covid pandemic have pushed up the cost of materials. 3% mortgages supercharged demand.

Restricting immigration won't stop a San Jose, CA resident from moving to Boise, ID.