Trade tensions between Canada and the United States have many Canadians that own U.S. property weighing a sale of their home south of the border due to the economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration.
More than half of Canadians with U.S. real estate holdings (54 per cent) say they are planning to sell their American homes within the next year, according to a recent Royal LePage survey conducted by Brunson.
“Those are big numbers, particularly when you consider that we have about 1 million snowbird Canadians travel the United States each year, particularly during the six months of fall through spring, so the wintertime, and about over 60 per cent of those own property,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, told BNNBloomberg.ca in a Wednesday interview.
Nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of respondents surveyed, who are considering a sale, point to concerns with Trump and the White House. Meanwhile, 33 per cent are motivated by personal and financial reasons and five per cent are worried about extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes, floods and forest fires.
“My belief is, most Canadians believe this current era in American politics is extreme, and the pendulum will swing back towards something more normal or moderate,” said Soper. “But four years is a long time. He’s only six months into his term. There’s a lot of runway left, and a lot of uncertainty in terms of the direction America will take after the Trump presidency.”
Of those who went through a sale and sold their U.S. property within the last year, 44 per cent say it was because of the political climate, while 27 per cent say it was for personal reasons, and 22 per cent because of increasingly extreme weather conditions.
‘Buy Canadian’ sentiment resonating with residents
Canadians have been among the top two largest contributors of foreign investment in U.S. real estate for the last two decades, although transactions have been significantly lower the last five years compared to the majority of the 2010s, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Almost one third (32 per cent) of respondents who have recently sold or are planning to sell within the next year say they plan to reinvest the proceeds of sales into the Canadian market.
Real estate professionals in the U.S. have reported more than twice as many residential property sales by international clients over the last year, the largest group being Canadian.
“We only have between (450,000) and 500,000 overall real estate transactions in a year in all of Canada,” said Soper. “When you’re talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of Canadians selling property, that’s a big deal. It’s a real material change in attitude. Now we often investigate intent, and intent doesn’t always translate to action, but it’s clear that there has been a change in attitude, and that will be a seismic shift in Canadians investment in American property.”
The exodus from the American market follows a trend of residents travelling and spending less in the United States. Royal LePage points out, for example, Canadians made 6.1 million trips to the U.S. during the first quarter of 2025, a 10.8 per cent decline compared to the same period last year, according to Statistics Canada.
At the same time, spending during those visits fell 7.9 per cent year over year, totalling $5.7 billion. Soper said Canadians are bringing back money to Canada.
“We’re talking billions of dollars of Canadians’ money being spent in these regions in the United States, where they own properties, and bringing those billions back to Canada,” said Soper. “That will both have a material impact on the areas in which they live in Canada, the regions, but also on the regions in which they’re leaving”.
Methodology
Burson used the Leger Opinion online panel to survey some 2,500 adult residents across Canada. The survey was conducted between Aug. 4 and 9, 2025 encompassing a variety of ages, genders, and other representations in line with the 2021 census figures.
No margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample. For comparison purposes, a probabilistic sample of 2,500 respondents would have a margin of error of ±2 per cent, 19 times out of 20, and results from smaller subsamples should be interpreted with the understanding that their associated margin of error increases.