Listen up, folks—Canadian snowbirds are packing up and fleeing Florida’s sunny shores faster than you can say “tariff,” thanks to a heated trade spat with the U.S.
According to the Daily Mail, as of January 3, 2026, reports reveal that escalating rhetoric from President Trump and punitive trade policies have driven many Canadians to sell their estimated $60 billion worth of Florida properties, leading to a sharp decline in ownership, especially in Southwest Florida, and a crashing real estate market with high inventory and dropping prices.
For years, about one million Canadians have flocked to Florida’s beachfront havens like Sarasota, Cape Coral, and Fort Myers each winter, seeking warmth and relaxation.
That trend started unraveling over the past year, with Canadian ownership of properties declining across nearly every major Florida market, hitting hardest in the Southwest region.
The tipping point came early in Trump’s second term when, last March, he floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state—a comment that ruffled feathers north of the border. Adding fuel to the fire, Trump launched a trade war, slapping hefty tariffs on Canadian imports like steel and aluminum, citing issues with Canada’s handling of the fentanyl crisis.
In August 2025, those tariffs jumped to 35 percent on various goods, followed by an extra 10 percent on timber and lumber in October 2025, tightening the economic screws.
Many Canadians retaliated by boycotting U.S. goods, travel, and services, and now their real estate holdings in places like Florida are becoming part of this protest movement.
Royal LePage President and CEO Phil Soper noted, “The polarizing political climate in the United States is prompting many Canadians to reconsider how and where they spend their time and money.”
While that observation hits the mark, it’s worth noting that when 54 percent of Canadian U.S. property owners—per a Royal LePage survey—cite politics as their reason to sell, it’s a wake-up call that policy decisions have real-world ripple effects, even if some might call it an overreaction.
Take Canadian snowbird Donna Lockhart, who’s eyeing a sale of her Punta Gorda home, saying, “I think you get a little more anxious the older you get, and I do not like the direction that the United States is going in.”
Her concern is understandable, but let’s not ignore that the resulting flood of listings—about 10 percent of homes in her Cape Coral area are for sale—has tipped the market into a buyer’s paradise and a seller’s nightmare.
Realtor.com data backs this up, showing home prices in Cape Coral down by roughly 10 percent and North Port declining about 8 percent, with inventory piling up.
Despite a 4.5 percent drop in Canadian buyers searching for U.S. homes over the past year, Canada still leads as the top source of international homebuyers in the States, per Realtor.com.
Yet, with Southwest Florida facing unprecedented supply levels, as noted by experts, and once-bustling beachfront spots like Fort Myers seeing growing vacancies, it’s clear that tough trade stances can cool more than just diplomatic ties—they can freeze out entire communities, leaving sellers in the cold while the political heat rages on.