Anti-Immigrant Movement, Falling Home Prices cause Disconent in Prince William County

I've been watching the housing market in Manassas City and Prince William County pretty closely for the last few months. My theory is this: the drastic drop in home prices is primarily due to the slumping economy and high foreclosure rates, but the drastic outflow of immigrants--the documented and undocumented alike--is also fueling the tanking housing market.

Upon what facts have I based this theory? Well, a few months ago, I spoke with the PWC demographer, who told me that the growth in PWC since the 2000 census had primarily been attributed to growth in the immigrant community. So, most of the 100,000 +/- newcomers to Prince William were immigrants. With their exodus after the anti-immigrant ordinances, means that houses are being abandoned and people are not moving in to fill the gaps.

Today's Washington Post reports a similar story to my own: people in the county who bought during the last throws of the book are angry and frustrated about lower home prices, higher taxes, and what many believe to be a huge waste of resources: asking police to check the immigrations status of immigrants in the county.

Of course, if you read any of the "Help Save" sponsored blogs, you'll see that the leaders of those movements, particularly Mr. Greg Letiecq of Black Velvet Bruce Li, have been desperately trying to paint a very different picture of the Manassas/PWC economic situation. My guess is that Letiecq recognizes a simple fact: you can only muster so much support for his movement through fear and propagating hate, and when it comes down to it, most rational people are going to be more motivated to act in their economic self-interest rather than get all worked up because they see a bilingual sign or have to share their community with brown people (most of whom, by the way, are hardworking and model citizens).

Last week I went to my first house auction in Manassas. I was curious to see how good the bargains would be, and I was not disappointed. I saw a great single-family home in very nice neighborhood in the city of Manassas sell for $70,000 (it was a three bedroom, 2.5 bath on a small lot). Who were the other folks looking for bargains? Other nice white, educated middle-class people like me? Well, no, not actually. The majority of bidders were real estate speculators looking for rental bargains. Where I grew up, we referred to theses people as slum lords. Not exactly the kind of people you want buying up loads of property in your struggling neighborhood, as they are unlikely to be concerned about how their purchases and rentals impact the neighborhood.

My guess is that as time moves on, the economic concerns in PWC will overshadow the irrational anti-immigrant ordinances and movement.