In 1990, the United States had 19.8 million foreign-born residents. The homeownership rate for Americans under 35 was 45%.[1] A family earning the median income could buy the median home at a price-to-income ratio of 3.7x.[9] College tuition at a public four-year university averaged $1,780 per year.[7] International students numbered roughly 400,000.[6]
By 2025, the foreign-born population had reached 51.6 million - an increase of 32 million people in 35 years.[2] The homeownership rate for Americans under 35 had fallen to 36.3%.[1] The price-to-income ratio had risen to 5.6x.[9] Public university tuition exceeded $11,000.[7] International students numbered 1,126,690.[6]
The country added 32 million people. It did not add 32 million people's worth of housing, university seats, or high-paying jobs. The difference was absorbed by the Americans who were already here.
The Housing Dilution
The arithmetic is straightforward. More people competing for the same housing stock means higher prices. When 1 million immigrants arrive per year and settle disproportionately in the same 20 metropolitan areas, demand in those areas rises without proportional supply.[3]
The national price-to-income ratio rose from 3.7x in 1990 to 5.6x in 2022 - a record.[9] In the metros where immigrants concentrate, the numbers are worse. San Jose's ratio exceeds 18x on a starting professional salary. Miami, where 54% of residents are foreign-born, is unaffordable for the median household.[3]
The effect on young Americans is measurable. In 1990, 45% of Americans under 35 owned a home.[1] By the end of 2024, that figure had dropped to 36.3% - the lowest in five years.[1] The share of young adults living with their parents nearly doubled, from 12.5% to 20.2%.[4] These are not people who chose to stay home. They are people who cannot afford to leave.
A 25-year-old in Austin or Denver or Raleigh in 1990 could rent a one-bedroom apartment on an entry-level salary and save for a down payment within a few years. A 25-year-old in those same cities in 2025 spends half their take-home pay on rent and saves nothing. The cities did not run out of land. They absorbed millions of additional residents through immigration without building the housing to match.
The University Pipeline
In 1990, roughly 400,000 international students attended American universities.[6] By 2024, that number had grown to 1,126,690 - nearly triple.[6] They now represent 6% of total enrollment.
The financial incentive for universities is large. Over 80% of international undergraduates pay full tuition with personal or family funds.[8] At public universities, international students pay two to three times what in-state students pay for the same instruction.[8] A foreign student paying $45,000 per year at a state school generates more revenue than three in-state students paying $11,000 each.
Universities responded rationally. They expanded international recruitment. They built luxury dormitories and marketed themselves abroad. They hired international admissions teams. They raised tuition across the board because the market - now global - would bear it.
Public university tuition averaged $1,780 per year in 1990.[7] By 2025, it exceeded $11,000 - a 500% increase in nominal terms, far outpacing inflation.[7] The standard explanation points to declining state funding. That is part of the story. The other part is that universities discovered they could charge more because international students, backed by family wealth from India, China, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, would pay it. American students absorbed the new price floor.
In graduate programs, the displacement is more direct. 55-60% of computer science graduate students at American universities are foreign nationals.[5] In engineering, the figure is 50-55%. American taxpayers fund these institutions. Foreign nationals fill the seats that lead to the highest-paying careers.
The Labor Dilution
The foreign-born share of the American labor force doubled between 1990 and 2024, from 9.3% to 19.2%.[10] That is an additional 20 million workers competing for jobs in the same economy.
The competition is not evenly distributed. Foreign-born workers concentrate in two segments: low-wage service and construction jobs, and high-wage professional and tech jobs. The H-1B program alone places over 400,000 foreign workers in professional occupations.[11] The OPT program adds 230,000 more. American workers compete against this pipeline at every level.
The result shows up in the wealth data. The median inflation-adjusted net worth of Americans under 35 barely moved between 1989 and 2019.[12] It hovered between $13,000 and $23,000 for three decades - a generation of stagnation. The number jumped to $39,000 in 2022, driven primarily by pandemic-era asset inflation and stimulus payments, not by structural improvement in earning power.[12]
The top 10% of households, by contrast, increased their share of total national wealth from 56% to 60% over the same period.[12] The people who own the companies that hire H-1B workers got richer. The Americans those workers replaced did not.
The Dilution Math
Think of it this way. In 1990, the American economy supported 249 million people. GDP, housing stock, university capacity, hospital beds, highway lanes, water systems - all were built for roughly that number. The economy grew, but it grew for 249 million.
By 2025, the population is 340 million. Of the 91 million added, roughly 32 million are foreign-born and their immediate impact on demand is concentrated in the same cities, the same labor markets, and the same universities as the existing population.
Housing construction did not keep pace. The National Association of Realtors estimates a structural deficit of 5.5 million homes.[9] University capacity did not triple. Infrastructure spending did not scale proportionally.
Every additional person in a metropolitan area bids up the same housing, competes for the same entry-level job, sits in the same classroom, drives on the same highway, and uses the same hospital. When the population grows by immigration faster than infrastructure grows by investment, the per-person share of every resource declines. That is dilution.
Who Pays
The costs of dilution fall disproportionately on young Americans and working-class Americans.
A 30-year-old in San Jose in 1990 could buy a starter home on a single income. A 30-year-old in San Jose in 2025 cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment on a single tech salary without roommates. The city added hundreds of thousands of residents through H-1B immigration and chain migration. It did not add hundreds of thousands of new homes.
A high school graduate in 1990 could get a construction job that paid a living wage. A high school graduate in 2025 competes against foreign-born workers who make up over 30% of the construction workforce[10] and accept lower pay because their cost-of-living expectations were set in a different country.
A college freshman in 1990 could cover tuition at a state university with a summer job and modest loans. A college freshman in 2025 graduates with an average of $33,000 in debt[7] into a labor market where 19.2% of workers are foreign-born and the best-paying graduate programs are majority international students.
The beneficiaries of the dilution are identifiable. Corporations get a larger labor pool that suppresses wages. Universities get full-paying international students who subsidize their expansion. Real estate investors get rising property values driven by population growth. The political class gets new voters.
The losers are the Americans who were here first. Their homes cost more. Their wages buy less. Their children compete for university seats against a global applicant pool. Their neighborhoods have been transformed. Their share of the national wealth has stagnated while the country's total wealth has grown - captured by the top 10% who benefit from the same immigration that diluted everyone else.
The country added 32 million people. It did not ask the 249 million already here whether they wanted to share.
Sources
- Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership, Annual Rates by Age
- Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Foreign-Born Population 2010-2024
- Migration Policy Institute, "Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration"
- Urban Institute, "The Real Homeownership Gap Between Today's Young Adults and Past Generations"
- National Science Foundation, Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, 2022
- IIE Open Doors, International Student Data
- Education Data Initiative, "College Tuition Inflation Rate"
- ACE, "International Student Funding: Tuition, Fees, and Financial Aid"
- Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, "Home Price-to-Income Ratio Reaches Record High"
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics," 2024
- USCIS, H-1B Employer Data Hub
- Congressional Budget Office, "Trends in the Distribution of Family Wealth, 1989 to 2022"