How far would Canadians move to find a home they can afford? For nearly half of the population, the answer is up to an hour away, as soaring real estate pressures force prospective buyers to dramatically rethink their geographical boundaries.
Others are prepared to go significantly further in their search for attainable housing, including eight per cent of respondents who would consider packing up and leaving their province altogether. These stark findings are part of the Remax Canada 2026 Fall Housing Market Outlook, released Wednesday, which highlights how persistent affordability challenges continue to dictate the financial and lifestyle calculations of Canadians striving for homeownership.
According to the nationwide survey, affordability remains overwhelmingly the top factor influencing home-buying decisions, cited by 60 per cent of respondents as the primary consideration when choosing where to purchase property. Neighbourhood safety followed as the next most important priority at 47 per cent. Despite the steep hurdles presented by the modern real estate landscape, the desire to own property remains robust, with 63 per cent of surveyed Canadians stating they would be willing to relocate entirely for a home that better suits their evolving needs.
Don Kottick, president of Remax Canada, emphasizes that navigating today’s market is a delicate exercise in prioritization for prospective purchasers. There is a fundamental difference between compromising and settling, he explains, noting that rather than giving up on homeownership entirely, Canadians are making calculated choices about how to achieve their goals. For some buyers, that means casting a wider net outside their current community or completely reconsidering the architectural style and typology of the home they purchase. For others, it involves profound financial adjustments. Ultimately, buyers are identifying what matters most to them and determining precisely where they have room to be flexible.
How far would buyers go?
When examining the physical distances prospective purchasers are willing to travel, the Remax data reveals a populace increasingly untethered to specific neighbourhoods. Thirty per cent of respondents indicated they would move up to 30 minutes away from their current community, while an additional 17 per cent would expand that radius to between 30 and 60 minutes.
Further out on the spectrum, five per cent of Canadians would be willing to relocate one to two hours away from home, three per cent would travel more than two hours, and eight per cent would cross provincial borders entirely.
This willingness to compromise manifests in lifestyle and property compromises as well. Thirty-one per cent of survey participants stated they would accept living farther away from a central city core, and 21 per cent would tolerate being situated at a greater distance from essential amenities such as restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues.
Property features are also up for negotiation. Exactly 20 per cent of respondents said they would purchase an older home or one that requires significant renovations, while another 20 per cent would willingly accept a smaller yard or reduced outdoor living space. Eighteen per cent would consider a completely different type of housing—such as shifting from a detached house to a townhouse or condominium—and 15 per cent would take on a longer daily commute to their place of work or school.
Even so, there are hard boundaries for many consumers. Eighteen per cent of respondents stated flatly that they would not be willing to make any of the compromises listed in the survey, signaling that for a segment of the population, certain standards of living remain non-negotiable.
Making the finances work
For buyers who are unwilling or unable to alter their geographic location, the necessary compromises often come directly out of the household budget.
Forty-one per cent of respondents reported they would cut back significantly on discretionary spending—such as leisure travel, entertainment, and dining out—to free up the capital required to afford a home. Nearly one-quarter of prospective buyers said they would extend their mortgage amortization period to lower their monthly payments, stretching out the life of the loan to make homeownership marginally more achievable on a month-to-month basis.
Financial creativity and external support are also playing vital roles. Twenty per cent of Canadians surveyed said they would accept financial assistance from family members to break into the market, while 17 per cent would take on a second job or secure another secondary source of income to bolster their borrowing power. An additional 17 per cent indicated they would be forced to delay their retirement or postpone other long-term savings goals to service their housing costs.
Buyers gaining ground in some markets
While individual buyers grapple with these difficult personal choices, broader macroeconomic and regional conditions across Canada are slowly beginning to shift in favor of purchasers in certain pockets of the country.
Data analyzed by Remax between January 1 and July 31 reveals that home sales declined year over year in 81 per cent of the real estate markets examined. However, average residential prices still managed to rise in 56 per cent of those same markets, reflecting the complex interplay between stagnant inventory and sticky pricing. Looking ahead, Remax expects the national average residential price to finish 2026 roughly 2.3 per cent below 2025 levels, with overall sales anticipated to end the year approximately two per cent lower.
Drawing on the outlooks provided by real estate brokers and agents, 32 per cent of the markets analyzed are expected to be firmly entrenched in buyers’ territory by the fall, representing a notable increase from just 15.2 per cent a year prior.
Yet, these national aggregate numbers mask a deeply fractured regional landscape where local economic conditions dictate vastly different realities.
In British Columbia, Greater Vancouver remains firmly favorable to buyers. Meanwhile, the market in Calgary is more divided; detached and semi-detached homes are experiencing relatively balanced conditions, but elevated inventory in the condominium sector has pushed that specific property segment firmly into buyers’ territory. In contrast, Saskatoon continues to favor sellers.
Across Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area persists as a buyers’ market, characterized by an average residential price that is down 5.1 per cent year over year, while sales volumes remain essentially flat. Neighboring regions such as Kitchener-Waterloo and Niagara are similarly offering more leverage to prospective purchasers.
The story is entirely different in Thunder Bay, where severely constrained housing inventory has kept market conditions heavily tilted in favor of sellers, driving the average price up by 10.5 per cent year over year.
Atlantic Canada has also charted its own unique course. Average residential prices rose year over year in every single Atlantic market analyzed by Remax, even as overall transaction sales volumes declined across the region. Within the Maritimes and surrounding provinces, Greater St. John’s remains seller-favorable, while Halifax, Truro-Colchester, and Greater Moncton are currently operating as balanced markets. Charlottetown, however, has tipped into buyers’ territory.
Further east, Montreal remains an overall seller-favorable market. According to Remax, buyers in the city have increasingly adapted to these conditions by becoming more open to purchasing condominiums and smaller living spaces, as well as casting their search nets outside their original preferred neighborhoods.
Policy measures having limited effect
Against this backdrop of shifting regional markets and strained household budgets, the Remax report also evaluated whether recent federal government interventions are moving the needle on housing affordability.
The findings suggest mixed efficacy for major policy rollouts. Three-quarters of the Canadians surveyed were aware of the federal first-time homebuyers’ GST/HST rebate. Among those aware, 45 per cent believed it is helping some buyers, and 16 per cent felt it makes homeownership tangibly more attainable specifically for first-time entrants. However, only 14 per cent reported that the rebate had directly influenced their own personal purchase plans.
In a separate survey of Remax brokers and agents, real estate professionals noted that while the rebate has proved useful for helping qualifying buyers clear financing hurdles, its primary beneficiaries are individuals who were already very close to purchasing a home in the first place. Furthermore, its practical reach is severely constrained in communities where new residential construction is scarce or priced entirely out of reach for first-time buyers.
The federal ban on foreign homebuyers received an even more muted assessment from industry experts. In 79 per cent of market responses collected by Remax, brokers indicated that the ban has had little to no measurable impact on either local housing affordability or the pace of new construction development.
When Canadians were asked directly what policy measure would make the largest difference for first-time buyers, opinions were split. Twenty-one per cent pointed to the implementation of more targeted affordable housing programs, and another 21 per cent called for lower mortgage interest rates. Fourteen per cent emphasized the fundamental need for increasing overall housing supply.
Kottick notes that while Canadians are clearly demonstrating a high degree of preparedness to adapt to economic pressures, buyers ultimately operate within strict structural limits. Rebates and regulatory measures can certainly help at the margins, he explains, but true, long-term affordability ultimately depends on a multifaceted combination of factors, including robust supply pipelines, manageable financing costs, and having the right mix of housing stock available to meet demographic demands. Buyers remain focused on the decisions they can directly control, but the broader structural affordability challenges continue to loom large over the Canadian real estate landscape.
The online survey of 1,532 Canadian adults aged 18 and older was conducted by research firm Leger between July 17 and July 19, 2026.