Canadian searches for U.S. real estate shows steep decline: report

There has been a nationwide effort among Canadians to buy local and travel domestically this year , as a strained relationship with the United States continues. And now, a new report is suggesting that the number of Canadians interested in U.S. real estate has declined. Nearly 30 per cent fewer Canadians searched for properties to buy or rent in the U.S. this May, compared to last year, according to a report by real estate company RedFin . The decline began in February. That was around the same time tensions were rising between the neighbouring countries, sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s heated rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state and the beginning of a trade war, when 25 per cent tariffs were implemented on Canadian goods going to the U.S. “The Canadian dollar has been relatively weak this spring, making it harder for Canadians to afford already-expensive U.S. real estate,” RedFin said in its report. The steepest drop came in April, when Canadian searches for U.S. homes fell by 34.2 per cent year over year. The decline has affected 48 of the largest metro areas in the United States, according to RedFin. That includes Canadians searching for homes in Houston, which dropped 55.2 per cent year over year in May, as well as Philadelphia, by 53 per cent, and Chicago, by 47 per cent. The report also noted that the housing market in Florida for both American and Canadian buyers “has cooled.” The state is a popular destination for Canadian snowbirds. In April, lawmakers in the U.S., including a Florida congresswoman, cosponsored a bill that would allow Canadian snowbirds to visit for longer . The report cited the lack of interest in the state was likely due to a surge in insurance costs in its coastal regions as well as intensifying climate disasters. Canadians searching for homes in Miami and Orlando declined by about 30 per cent year over year in May, the report said. Canadians have made up a large portion of international buyers in the United States. In 2024, they were listed as the top foreign buyers — at 13 per cent — spending US$5.9 billion, according to the National Association of Realtors . The head of economics research for Redfin Chen Zhao told National Post in an emailed statement on Tuesday that the U.S. real estate market is “already weak.” She added that it has had historically low sales volume for the past three years and prices are starting to fall in many parts of the country. “If Canadian demand continues to fall, then that means further weakness for the U.S. real estate market,” she said. “The importance of Canadian buyers will vary by geography, so the impact will be large in places like Florida, Palm Springs in California, Texas and Arizona.” Zhao said she found it “striking” how the decrease in interest lined up so well with tariff volatility. “The White House first announced tariffs on Canada at the beginning of February, and there was a sharp decline from January to February in traffic from Canada,” she said. “I think that it will take some time for the sentiment to change. Canadians will need to no longer feel like the U.S. is treating them unfairly in its trade policy.” The percentages in the technology-based real estate brokerage’s report were calculated based on Redfin.com unique users located in Canada who conducted online searches of homes for sale and for rent in the U.S. Unique users refer to the “number of different people who access U.S. home listings” on the site or the app “within a defined period,” according to RedFin. The user is counted one time for that period. The latest data from Statistics Canada shows that travel to the U.S. from Canadian airports has also been on a downward trend . In May, for the fourth consecutive month, the number of passengers on flights to the U.S. decreased year over year by 8.2 per cent. Meanwhile, Canada’s largest airports saw higher volumes of passenger traffic. International travel, excluding the U.S., was on the rise — up 4.3 per cent this May, compared to 2024.

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