More homes are coming onto the market from a surprising source.
A new survey has found more than half of Canadians who own a property in the United States are intending to sell up and stay behind the border to our north.
The study, conducted by the Canadian real estate services provider Royal Le Page, found 54% of 2,500 surveyed Canadians who own US real estate are intending to sell.
A third of them (35%) cited political issues as their reason, while 17% said they were divesting because of personal circumstances.
Some Canadians may be feeling the pressure of their struggling economy, which has been struggling.
Its central bank, the Bank of Canada, has been slashing interest rates – a stark contrast to the Federal Reserve.
It has cut rates seven times since May last year. The base rate is now just 2.25% compared with our own, which stands at 4.5% and has not been touched since last December.
The disparity in our currencies – a reflection of our respective interest rates – has also made US properties more expensive to maintain for Canadians. The Canadian dollar currently trades around 70c.
Canadians who own vacation homes in America are called “snowbirds” because they use their properties to flee from Canada’s brutal winters.
The Royal Le Page survey also looked at selling patterns over the past 12 months.
The majority who have already sold (44%) said they didn’t like the political situation. Some 27% cited personal reasons for selling up while 22% pointed to increasingly extreme weather conditions – a presumed response to climate patterns in Florida.
The survey found 32% of snowbirds now planned to buy a second home in their own country. However, 45% said they had no plans to reinvest in property.
Not surprisingly, Canadian snowbirds follow the sun with Florida being the most popular destination.
The National Association of Realtors says in its most recent available data that Canadians spent $2.5 billion on property in 2022.
An article on Realtor.com says the second-favourite destination is Arizona because of its “dry, warm climate and plentiful luxurious retirement communities”.
California and Texas come in at 3rd and 4th place respectively.