Owning a house is said to be a key component of the ‘American Dream.’ On the other hand, new research by trulia.com, an online site for home buyers and sellers, says that the gap between US-born and immigrant house owners is decreasing by the day and, in turn, providing crucial support to the American housing market.

Time.com quotes Trulia as saying that the gap between US native and immigrant house owners has declined to almost 15 percent, a fall from close to 21 percent 15 years ago.

The house ownership of native Americans, which rose gradually from 1994 to 2005, started falling thereafter after each subsequent year, from a high of 72 percent to 66 percent by the end of 2015. At the same time, the house ownership rate of immigrants, which rose to a high of 54 percent in 2007, too fell, but not as substantially to remain flat at 50 percent since 2013.

According to Trulia, the variations are significant between certain states. For example, California, which houses a higher ratio of immigrants, saw more foreign-born citizens buying homes there. But there was a catch here. States with a reasonably higher number of newly arrived immigrants have lesser number of house owners compared to the others, which have immigrants firmly entrenched in America.

Data from Trulia, in fact, shows that foreign-born US citizens who have lived in the country for more than a decade are more likely to buy homes as much if not higher than the native-born US citizens.

Trulia concludes by saying that house buying gives employment and its attendant activities a leg up and benefits communities in America on the whole, which is why it needs more skilled and well-heeled immigrants.

If you are looking to migrate to the US, contact Mahandru Associates to get professional counselling on filing for the appropriate visa.