Canadian Buyers Are Dropping Out of the U.S. Housing Market

New York Times

a day ago

Canadians have dramatically slowed their searches for homes in the United States in the wake of tariffs by the Trump administration, according to new data from Redfin, shared exclusively with The New York Times.
In May, traffic from Canada on the home listing site fell by 26.4 percent from the same time a year ago, marking the fourth straight month of double-digit year over year declines in searches for homes in the United States. The pattern follows President Trump's announcements to enact, pause and negotiate tariffs on the country. While there was a dip in overall traffic to the site during the same period, it was dwarfed by the drop from Canada, said Chen Zhao, the head of economics research for Redfin.
The first major plunge happened in February, when searches from Canada declined by 21.3 percent year over year — a marked shift from January, when searches were down just 3.6 percent from the prior year.
'This is a big earthquake,' Dr. Zhao said. 'You just don't see that happen.'
In 2024, Canadians accounted for 13 percent of all foreign buyers in the United States, more than any other nation, spending $5.9 billion on American real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors. Half of Canadian buyers purchase vacation homes, usually in warm-weather areas, favoring Florida, followed by Arizona, Hawaii and California, according to N.A.R.
'If the Canadian buyers aren't coming to spend their winters in Florida or Palm Springs, then they are also not spending their money there, and that has implications for the local economy,' said Dr. Zhao.
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