The Wall Street Journal reports that many Canadians are selling their U.S. vacation homes. Besides being annoyed by Trump’s 51st State talk, “Brokers say their clients talk about feeling increasingly unwelcome and worry that the government may increase taxes on properties owned by Canadians. Other measures, such as the new rule requiring foreign nationals who stay in America for more than 30 days to register with the government, have made them nervous about future travel restrictions, agents say.”
Of course, there are economics at work. The Canadian dollar (affectionately called the Loonie) has hit a 22-year low versus the U.S. dollar, “making it more expensive for Canadians to pay HOA fees, insurance and property taxes in the U.S. On the flip side, selling their homes in U.S. dollars was more of a boon, especially since property values in popular winter escapes have risen significantly.”
Brokers say it’s politics that are pushing out Canadians.
Realtor Catherine Spino “received an email from a Canadian citizen who she was helping look for a second home in South Florida in the million-dollar range. He wrote: ‘I was seriously looking to buy a condo but now how he’s treating our beloved country Canada — I have decided to abandon the plans for now… Why would I spend my money here?’”
Canadians once were nearly a quarter of the foreign buyers market. Now, attorney David Altro says his firm, which assists with cross-border finance, is receiving 20-30 calls a week from Canadians looking to sell.
“We want to be here, but we’ve decided we are not going to be here,” said Garry Liboiron, a 76-year-old Canadian who owns a real-estate firm in Cobourg, Ontario. He put his five-bedroom, 3,300-square-foot house with a pool and a big backyard southeast of Phoenix on the market for $599,000 in March. “He knows it’s unlikely, but in the back of his mind he worries the U.S. government may go so far as to nationalize Canadian-owned properties,” writes Nathalie Mancuso and Alexio Musleh.
“It’s getting scary,” Liboiron says. “Who knows what they’ll do.”
Clifford and Paulette Lawrick left Arizona after more than a decade of owning a second home in Chandler, about 22 miles southeast of Phoenix. Paulette “says she found herself getting really angry when people they knew joked about their country becoming a U.S. state. She was on the social committee at the condo complex but found she didn’t want to go to the Friday evening events anymore.” The Lawricks sold their 1,000 sf condo for $350,000 in a week and drove back to Calgary.
Canadians own almost 20,000 residential properties in Arizona, more than 90% of the properties owned by foreigners in the state. “Canadians made up 17% of the number of residential purchases by foreigners in Florida in 2024, the most of any foreign buyers, according to Florida Realtors, a trade association.”
Philippe Trudeau, a business owner from Montreal, was speaking French when a stranger asked him, “What are you doing here?” “When he explained he had owned a home in Pompano Beach, Fla., since 2018, the man didn’t back off, Trudeau says. ‘He told me to go back home,’ says Trudeau. “He said, ‘We don’t need you here.’”
After one day on the market, his two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,200-square-foot condo sold for $280,000. “I wanted just to get out of there,” he says.