Immigrants are drawn to midsize metro areas, study shows

LOS ANGELES — Recently arrived immigrants flocked to smaller U.S. metropolitan areas during the first half of the 1990s, lured by less job competition and cheaper housing, but they were not as likely to buy homes in such places, according to a study expected to be released Monday.

The population of immigrants living in the U.S. for a decade or less jumped 27 percent in cities such as Nashville, Tenn.; El Paso, Texas; Bakersfield, Calif.; and Stockton, Calif., during the first five years of the century, the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate reported.

More traditional "gateway" areas such as Los Angeles and New York saw a 6 percent decline in the number of these newcomers over that same period.

"There has been tremendous growth in the population of immigrants in these smaller metropolitan areas," said Gary Painter, director of research at the center and co-author of the study. "A lot of immigrants weren't even going to the gateways first."

But "the networks are certainly much newer in these smaller metro areas."

The results of the study, which analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau, found that immigrants didn't adapt as well to housing markets in midsize areas. They were less likely than native-born Americans with similar incomes to buy a home than immigrants in more established metro areas such as Los Angeles and New York.

The study also found that Asian immigrants have slightly lower homeownership rates than Latino immigrants in midsize metro areas, which contrasts with larger, gateway cities, where more Asians tend to own homes.

Both immigrant groups tend to live in overcrowded conditions in smaller metro areas, the study found.

The amount of time spent in the U.S. didn't help immigrants in midsize areas to catch up to the homeownership rate of native-born Americans with similar incomes. In more traditional gateway cities, however, the longer immigrants stay in the country the more likely they are to own.