Concerns that Americans will become the new foreign buyer

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There was a lot of talk last year during the US presidential campaign that Americans would move north if Donald Trump won. Some new statistics from a top real estate firm suggest many people are now actually looking into it.

According to Royal LePage, US interest has spiked since Trump’s surprising win two months ago. In November 2016, American web traffic climbed almost 75 per cent year-over-year. “Immediately after the election, the number of Americans searching for properties on our national website surged over 300 per cent,” explains Royal LePage President and CEO Phil Soper.

BC, Ontario and Quebec got most of the attention receiving almost three-quarters of all US page views. The place that garnered the most interest here on the West Coast was Victoria.

Soper points out both Victoria and Prince Edward Island saw a significant surge leading Soper to suggest, “At least some of the people searching from American are at a stage in life where they could either work from home or retire.”

He sees two reasons for the rise in American interest. First, he points to several widely publicized reports of the “Most Liveable Cities,” which place Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary in three of the top five spots worldwide. No US city ranked in the top 10, according to the Economist. And as we all watched unfold last year, Soper sees America divided as a nation.

“Really does seem to have hit a fever pitch at this stage,” observes Soper. “Which may drive more Americans to go through the somewhat arduous process of immigrating to Canada.”

He says it will take about six months to get a clearer sense if the interest will translates into real sales creating a new foreign buyer.

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