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The housing advisor to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is predicting the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration could drive up home prices.

The Deseret News reports that Steve Waldrip, who serves as senior advisor for housing strategy and innovation for the Republican governor, estimated that roughly 10% of Utah’s construction workers are illegal immigrants. But he also stated that Utah construction companies are dealing with labor shortages that will be exacerbated if illegal immigrants are either forcibly removed by the federal government or voluntarily stay out of sight to avoid deportation.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from the construction industry that they are really struggling to find skilled labor, and particularly carpenters, electricians, plumbers – those kind of trades are really, really thin in the state right now,” Waldrip said, adding home prices could soar if mass deportation occur. “No question that this will impact the bottom lines of builders, and they don’t generally absorb those losses, they pass those on to the ultimate buyers.”

Waldrip also pushed back at the belief that the removal of illegal immigrants would make more affordable housing available – Utah faces a housing shortage of roughly 40,000 units.

“It’s not going to have a measurable impact on the price of housing to deport immigrants,” Waldrip said. “But it will have a negative impact on the production side.”

Photo courtesy Jared / Flickr Creative Commons