March 3, 2016

Should You #MoveToCanada? | Some Info on Canadian Real Estate

America’s Super Tuesday is over and Donald Trump won seven states. This has a ton of Americans looking for ways out in case he does make it to the Whitehouse.

The hashtag #MovetoCanada has gone wild on Twitter over the last few days, trending with tens of thousands of posts. Searches involving “Move to Canada” are up 1,000%, the highest point in Google history. (The next-highest time was when George W. Bush won re-election, so I guess there’s a trend.)

The site Cape Breton if Donald Trump Wins began as a spoof site and has now rolled out into a legit web destination, attracting Americans to Nova Scotia and beyond. The Cape Breton real estate market has exploded, and the island’s tourism site has already reached its expected annual traffic goals. Even the Canadian government’s website had some crazy traffic, meaning Americans are actually looking at how easy it would be to settle down in the great white north.

Zoocasa’s own fearless leader, Lauren Haw, even spoke with a US radio show out of Tampa Bay about the #MovetoCanada trend and what Canadian real estate is actually like.

You can check out the entire interview here.

So, why would Americans actually want to move up here? Here are some thoughts, from our real estate perspective:

The dollar discrepancy makes buying up here a lot cheaper

As of today, the Canadian dollar is $1.34 to every $1 USD. That means that Americans can move here and essentially find real estate “on sale.” And who doesn’t want to take advantage of a sale? Your dollar will go a much longer way when buying a home up here, and you won’t have to worry about election madness! (Also, our elections are much, much shorter. Just sayin’.)

It’s a big place

I’m sure you’ve heard, but Toronto and Vancouver are in the midst of extremely competitive real estate wars. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t be happy in the natural landscapes of PEI or the bustling city of Montreal. There are tons of places to choose from, my American friends. (Canada is actually geographically bigger than the US, just so you know.)

We’re a liberal, friendly bunch

We recently elected a new government and our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is one liberal guy. If you’re worried about the racial discrimination in the US, we have a lot less of that here: we’re welcoming Syrian refugees with open arms and our major cities are extremely diverse. As Lauren points out in the interview, Toronto is less than 50% white.

So if you’re thinking of relocating, or you have American friends that are a little worried, movin’ on up to Canada might not be such a bad idea!

And we have poutine, too. So there’s that.

Flickr: Walter