Cities with most immigrant homeowners have higher home values: report

Foreign-born homeowners tend to own homes in metropolitan areas with higher home values, according to a new report.

Homeownership rates among immigrants is highest in Miami and San Jose, California, where a quarter of foreign-born residents own their homes, according to the report by LendingTree.com, first reported by the New York Times.

The report examined ownership rates among foreign-born and native-born residents in the 50 most populated metropolitan areas of the country.

Home values were above the national average of $220,200 in eight of the 10 cities with the highest rates of ownership among immigrants. San Jose has one of the highest, if not the highest, average home values in the country at $957,700.

About 14 percent of immigrants in New York own their homes, according to the study, which also found that cities with many immigrant homeowners tend to have lower percentages of native-born homeowners than cities with very few foreign-born owners.

The 10 cities with the lowest homeownership rates among immigrants also tended to be further from the coasts. Pittsburgh had the lowest rate — just 2 percent of foreign-born residents own their homes there, according to the report.

Cities with the lowest homeownership rates among immigrants also had high ownership rates among U.S.-born residents. Rates for U.S. citizens in the 10 cities with the lowest foreign-born homeownership rates were between 57 percent and 68 percent.

None of those metro areas had home values above the national average. The highest average home value was in Columbus, Ohio, where the typical home is worth $182,300.

Overall, homeownership has declined in the U.S. since the recession because of higher lending standards, more expensive homes, and low supply. The homeownership rate as of April was 64.4 percent, down from a peak of 69.4 percent in April 2004. [New York Times] – Dennis Lynch