Trump Border Shutdown Cuts Rent 13% — Biden’s Migrants Drove Affordability Crisis

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President Donald Trump’s border shutdown has delivered $259-per-month rent relief to American families — reversing the affordability crisis Joe Biden created when he opened the border to millions of illegal immigrants in 2021.

Average rents plummeted from $1,774 in summer 2022 to $1,694 in September 2026 — an $80 monthly cut, or $960 a year, according to Realtor.com data.

But the real savings run deeper.

When inflation is factored in, 2022’s $1,774 rent should have jumped to $1,953 by 2026. That means Trump’s immigration enforcement delivered a 13 percent real-dollar rent cut — roughly $259 per month below Biden’s unaffordable migration summer.

“ONCE THAT INFLATION IMPACT IS COUNTED, THE RENT ROLLBACK IS ROUGHLY $259 PER MONTH, OR 13 PERCENT BELOW PRICES IN BIDEN’S UNAFFORDABLE MIGRATION SUMMER.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other Trump deputies have celebrated the gains for American citizens. But the White House has stayed quiet on the rental relief — likely because Trump is reassuring nervous real estate investors and landlords who lose revenue when migrants are sent home.

Real estate professionals are nervous for a reason. The stock value of rental properties has dropped, partly because Trump has reduced the migrant population. In 2021, the Multi-Family Real Estate Apartment Price Index gained $108 billion. That spike created a record high of $412.80 billion in June 2022. By June 2026, the index had fallen 22.9 percent below that peak, Macrotrends.net reported.

Now Democrat progressives — who will gain power in Congress in 2027 — are joining hands with real estate lobbyists to demand yet more migration via asylum and visa channels. The push is being wrapped in Democrats’ affordability mantra — even though it would shove tens of millions of Americans back to the days of unaffordable Biden rents.

Biden Opened the Floodgates — Rents Spiked

Biden’s 2021 decision to open the border invited millions of migrants into Americans’ apartment housing. His economics team expected the low-wage migrants to offset inflation created by his massive Bidenomics spending. But they missed migrants’ massive impact on rental prices — which then bumped up Biden’s already-high inflation rate.

The sudden rush in renter demand — roughly 1.5 million new migrant rentals — caused an immediate spike in rental costs that peaked in 2022, despite the economic meltdown caused by the coronavirus.

For landlords, poor migrants were more lucrative than middle-class Americans because the migrants were willing to share bottom-tier housing. In 2024, New York Fire Department officials discovered 70 migrants crowded into a basement, each paying up to $300 a month. CBS News reported:

“INSPECTORS FOUND ILLEGALLY CONVERTED SLEEPING QUARTERS WITH 14 BUNK BEDS AND 13 BEDS AND INADEQUATE PLUMBING AND VENTILATION. A FULL VACATE ORDER WAS ISSUED.”

Democrats in urban districts welcomed the poor migrants, partly because Biden’s agencies were providing the cities with billions of dollars for migrants’ housing, food, and other aid. Much of that money supported Democrats’ urban machines — even as it reduced the cities’ average productivity and prosperity.

The policy damaged millions of Americans. In Arizona, Scottsdale Realtors.com reported in January 2023 on one couple forced to live in their van full-time:

“When monthly rent for their one-bedroom apartment in Avondale increased from around $800 to over $1,300, the couple simply couldn’t keep up. ‘They outpriced us,’ Rice said.”

Rental prices reached a peak in 2022, then lurched down later in 2022 and 2023 as landlords opened more apartments. The construction spree boosted the number of rentals from 43 million up to 46.8 million in 2026 — helping Americans pay lower rents for better apartments.

Before Trump, Biden’s combination of flat wages, high inflation, and rising rents hurt many Americans. “The number of cost-burdened renters hit a record high in 2022 as half of all households spent more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent and utilities,” Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported in 2024.

“More than half of renters are burdened in 12 states, including Florida, Nevada, and California,” the Harvard Center reported in 2026.

Trump’s Border Shutdown — Supply and Demand Corrected

Trump’s border shutdown cut the supply of new migrants just as many new apartments were being opened. Realtor.com reported in September that median rents were down to $1,694 (in 2026 dollars), adding:

“KEY DRIVERS ARE SHIFTING REGIONAL RENTAL DYNAMICS: COOLING SUPPLY WAVES IN SUN BELT MARKETS LIKE AUSTIN, TX, AND AFFORDABILITY-SEEKING MIGRATION FROM EXPENSIVE METROS (E.G., CHICAGO RENTERS MOVING TO ST. LOUIS).”

Realtor.com also noted: “While the median asking after-inflation rent remains $214 (14.5%) above pre-pandemic levels recorded in August 2019, it has fallen $80 (-4.5%) from its August 2022 peak. This persistent softness is increasingly translating into real savings for renters navigating a market that once felt out of reach.”

“Given the surge in multifamily construction over the past few years, we anticipate continued year-over-year declines,” the site added.

Even Trump’s vociferous critics in D.C. gain from the immigration policy. After-inflation rents in D.C. have dropped by roughly 10 percent since 2020, according to data from DC.urbanturf.com. Rents are also dropping in nearby Virginia.

The data is clear: Trump closed the border. Rents fell. American families are keeping more of their paychecks — and Democrats want to reverse it.

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