Not All Realtors Support McGuire

When I saw this morning’s headline in the Daily Progress, I knew I had to write this.

I hate that I’m writing this post. I’ve been vocal on social media, but this blog is more real to me. It’s more permanent, and I can link to sources here (see below). When people google “John McGuire and Realtors,” I hope this post comes up as one Realtor’s voice in support of treating everyone fairly. I believe we have more in common than politicians, and apparently Realtor PACs, want us to think.

Not all Realtors support McGuire. Not all Realtors support Tom Perriello, his opponent. But I’d like to think all Realtors understand that blaming “illegal immigrants” for Charlottesville’s unaffordable housing is wrong. It’s wrong on the facts, and it’s designed to divide us.

Most Realtors, I’d argue, support candidates with rational plans to help people buy, sell, or rent homes.

The National Association of Realtors has given about $10,000 on ads supporting a candidate who is pushing something this wrong and this divisive. That runs counter to how I practice, how I represent my clients, and how I try to live my life.

“John McGuire blames illegal immigrants for Charlottesville’s pricey real estate market”

David Velazquez with the Daily Progress writes:

Charlottesville’s is the second-most expensive real estate market in Virginia after the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and John Mcguire says it’s illegal immigrants’ fault.

McGuire, the Republican incumbent fighting to save his 5th District seat in Congress this year, says Democrats are using immigrants to “destabilize the United States” — and that includes its housing market.

“If Charlottesville has 100 houses for sale and 1,000 people want those 100 houses, what happens to the price? There’s not that many available, right?” McGuire told a crowd of overwhelmingly White supporters Saturday night during a “get out the vote” rally at First Free Coffee Bar in Albemarle County just north of Charlottesville. “You bring 15 to 20 million people to this country. Where are you going to sleep? They’ve overwhelmed our resources, and you guys are paying for it.”

Charlottesville has been in a self-described “housing crisis” for nearly two decades. The median sale price of a Charlottesville single-family residence is roughly $500,000, according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors’ second-quarter report. That’s considerably higher than the $420,000 median reported for the state by the Virginia Realtors association, which is already skewed by Northern Virginia’s incredibly expensive real estate market sitting as it does on the other side of the Potomac River from the nation’s capital.

Fact Checking the Claims

On BlueSky, Nathan Alderman checked the numbers.

I’m pasting and publishing his posts with his permission:

2024 Census data shows 46,533 people in Charlottesville. 10.6% were foreign-born. 63.1% of them — so, 6.68% of the total — weren’t U.S. citizens. 46,553 x 0.0668 = ~3,108 people in Charlottesville who aren’t citizens. Those are estimates, give or take a percent or so. (link to Census.gov)
Interestingly enough, if you count up all the international students enrolled at UVA that year, you get … 3,187. (link to UVA Magazine)
So at least in Charlottesville proper, it sure seems like most if not all of the foreign-born, noncitizen population are legally permitted students or workers at the university. I guess kicking them out could free up some housing, but it might have other, less desirable effects.(link to UVA Magazine)
What about McGuire’s underlying premise? Well… (link to NPR)
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing would also like a word here:(link to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies “The Role of the Recent Immigrant Surge in Housing Costs “)
Even a paper recently released and touted by the Trump Administration only showed undocumented immigrants contributing about 30% of the overall rise in home prices from 2021-2024. (link to Realtor.com)
In short, no, the facts on multiple fronts do not support McGuire’s assertion. Most noncitizens in Charlottesville appear to overlap with the legal international student population at UVA. And noncitizens’ demand for housing is just one fairly small factor in housing prices’ overall rise.