Millions of Americans will head to the polls next week to elect a new president. It appears some are considering relocation to Canada if the outcome of the election is not in their favour.
According to data released today by Royal LePage®, visits by Americans to royallepage.ca – the company’s consumer real estate portal and the most-visited real estate company website in Canada – have risen significantly since the U.S. presidential election unofficially kicked off this summer.
After months of typical web traffic from our neighbours to the south, U.S.-originated sessions to royallepage.ca more than doubled, surging 104 per cent week over week (67% year over year) in the week of June 16th (Week 25). The following week, on the heels of the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and then-presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, traffic peaked with an additional 4 per cent increase in visitors over the week prior (112% over week 24 and 94% year over year). There have been elevated levels of traffic from U.S. visitors ever since.
“Consistently ranking as one of the best countries in the world to live in, Canada continues to be a significant destination for international relocation; a fact unlikely to change in the years ahead,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer, Royal LePage. “Canada’s relative political and social stability, high quality of life, and access to education and universal healthcare, make it a highly attractive country for newcomers from Europe, Asia and around the world. For Americans, the transition is even easier, considering the proximity and lack of a language barrier in most provinces.”
July 2024 recorded the highest web traffic on royallepage.ca from U.S. visitors over the past 12 months, with a noticeable single-day spike recorded on July 15th – the same day former president Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election. This was also just two days after the first attempt on his life, which occurred during a rally in Pennsylvania.
This is not the first time Americans’ interest in Canada has been linked to U.S. political events. In 2017, a similar report found U.S. web traffic to royallepage.ca skyrocketed, jumping a massive 329 per cent the day following the 2016 election, and climbing 210 per cent year over year the week after Donald Trump’s electoral victory.1
“Americans are a minority in the hundreds of thousands of new Canadians we welcome each year, yet around presidential election time, they get very, very interested in their neighbour to the north. Nothing like political and economic uncertainty to get people searching for greener grass!” noted Soper. “Browsing online listings and moving to another country are two entirely different matters – given the rigorous application process and the federal government’s recent decision to reduce immigration targets, only serious and qualified candidates will actually relocate.”
The Government of Canada announced that it would be lowering its permanent resident targets for the next three years, reducing 2025 levels by more than 20%.
Regional trends
Among the ten most common states from which American visitors to royallepage.ca hail, most are blue states – meaning a majority of voters in the state voted for the Democratic Party candidate. However, since June 2024, the region with the highest number of visitors has consistently been the historically Republican state of South Carolina.
From June through September, American interest in Canadian real estate was concentrated in the country’s largest markets, with Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec receiving 70 per cent of all regional pageviews generated by U.S. visitors on royallepage.ca. Ontario led the country in American searches during this time, with 38 per cent of regional searches, followed by B.C. (17%) and Quebec (16%).
“Just as Canadians love U.S. sun states, American citizens have historically played an important role in recreational property markets across Canada. Given today’s polarized American political landscape and the divisive nature of this election, it would not be surprising if interest from America shifted from vacation homes to more permanent opportunities,” said Soper.
Voters in the United States will head to the polls on November 5th to elect their next president.