Trump's immigration crackdown could sink US home prices

Washington

IN San Francisco, an Indian software engineer on a work permit cancelled plans to bid on a US$900,000 home. In Washington, a Brazilian non-profit executive passed on a fixer-upper near her office. And, in Mesa, Arizona, a 24-year-old son of undocumented Mexican immigrants won the trust of a bank - a green light for a mortgage - but now fears deportation.

President Donald Trump's immigration policies threaten to crack a foundation of the American economy: the residential real estate market. Legal and otherwise, immigrants, long a pillar of growth in homebuying, are no longer feeling the warm welcome and optimism necessary for their biggest purchase. "I feel like with one stroke of Trump's signature everything can be taken away, even all my hard work," said Juan …