(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump’s trade war strained relations with America’s northern neighbor, and now, Canadian demand for U.S. real estate appears to be on the decline.
Canadian interest in U.S. homes dropped 26% year-over-year in May, marking the fourth straight month of double-digit declines, according to Redfin.
Redfin said the first major drop-off in Canadian searches for U.S. homes came in February, when the White House implemented 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico.
Two months later, Trump unveiled his Liberation Day agenda, and searches for U.S. real estate nosedived further, falling 34% in April from a year earlier.
Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin Premier agent in Phoenix, said she normally works with five Canadian buyers each spring, but this year, there were none.
“People from Canada are retreating from owning real estate in the U.S. because of political tensions,” Mahmood-Corley said in a statement.
The drop-off is especially noticeable given that Canadians have historically made up the largest share of international homebuyers in the U.S. In 2024, Canadians accounted for 13% of foreign buyers, spending $5.9 billion on U.S. real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Sunny resort areas in the U.S. are particularly popular with Canadians, and cities like Miami and Orlando saw even sharper year-over-year declines in search interest compared to the national average, down about 30% in May.
That said, housing markets in Florida have cooled for Canadians and Americans alike, with high insurance costs and the threat of natural disasters dissuading buyers. In fact, this year’s spring homebuying season was anything but in many places.
At a metro level, Redfin said fewer Canadians are searching for homes in all but two of the 50 largest U.S. metros: Indianapolis and Austin.
The biggest decline in Canadian interest is in big cities: Searches in Houston dropped 55% year over year in May, 53% in Philadelphia and 47% in Chicago.
The slowdown in Canadian interest in U.S. homes is just the latest sign of a frosty U.S.-Canada relationship. International tourism has been declining at Niagara Falls State Park in New York since the beginning of the year, and the number of Canadians driving to the U.S. is way down.
Redfin’s analysis was based on the number of users in Canada searching for homes for sale and for rent in the United States.
The 10 U.S. metros with the biggest year-over-year decline in Canada-based Redfin user searches (May 2024 to May 2025)
- Houston, TX (-55.2%)
- Philadelphia, PA (-53.0%)
- Chicago, IL (-47.0%)
- Cincinnati, OH (-45.8%)
- Kansas City, MO (-44.3%)
- Minneapolis, MN (-44.2%)
- Milwaukee, WI (-42.3%)
- San Antonio, TX (-39.9%)
- New Brunswick, NJ (-38.9%)
- Nashville, TN (-37.9%)
