Immigration and housing rents in US cities. Does immigration have a local impact on the economy? Immigration raises rents and real estate prices in U.S. destination cities. A positive relationship between rising rents and the influx of immigrants is common in the time series for all metropolitan areas. I use instrumental variables based on the "shift" of the national level of immigration to metropolitan areas. An immigration influx equal to 1% of a city's population is associated with an increase in average rents and real estate prices of about 1%. The results suggest that the impact on the economy is an order of magnitude greater than that observed in labor markets.