Why Aren’t Canadians Moving Like They Used To?

Canada’s housing market is increasingly characterized by a striking divergence: the population External link. continues to grow, but the number of homes changing hands hasn’t kept pace (graph 1).

Demographics offer part of the explanation. Statistics Canada External link. has identified the baby boomers’ entry into homeownership as an important driver of the increase in Canada’s homeownership rate prior to 2006. By then, however, most boomers—the generation born between 1946 and 1964—were already homeowners. Younger generations have also entered homeownership later. At age 30, over 55% of boomers were homeowners in 1981, compared with 50% of millennials in 2016. Today, the oldest boomers are turning 80, and many continue to age in place. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) research External link. found that the likelihood of selling rises meaningfully only at relatively advanced ages, while the sell rate for seniors ages 75 and older has been trending down over time (graph 2). Together, later entry into homeownership and aging in place reduce the churn that generates resale transactions.

More broadly, Canadians have become less mobile. CMHC External link. found that high housing costs were part of the reason for the declining share of households moving each year. Its modelling suggests that a 1% increase in house prices in a destination city leads to slightly more than a 1% decline in the number of people moving there. This isn’t unique to Canada. An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study External link. covering 14 countries found that high house prices can act as an important barrier to migration, even to regions offering higher income and better employment prospects.

The cost of the transaction itself may also discourage homeowners from moving. As home prices have risen, percentage-based realtor commissions and land or property transfer taxes have translated into increasingly large dollar amounts. Homeowners considering a move to a more expensive property may think twice about the tens of thousands of dollars in commissions, sales taxes and transfer taxes on top of the higher mortgage required for the new home (table 1). Owners avoid these transaction costs by staying where they are.

A household that needs another bedroom, a larger kitchen or a finished basement can put money that might otherwise be spent on the substantial costs of moving toward improving its existing home instead. Rising home prices have also made staying put more feasible by providing owners with accumulated equity that can help finance those renovations through a home equity line of credit (HELOC), home equity loan or mortgage refinancing. The 2026 CMHC Mortgage Consumer Survey External link. suggests that many homeowners are taking this approach. It found that 63% of mortgage consumers are planning renovations in the next five years, primarily to customize their homes to better suit their needs. Among those planning renovations, 32% expect to use home equity to fund the work. Renovations were also the most commonly cited reason for refinancing a mortgage, accounting for 32% of refinancers.

Canada’s population may be considerably larger than it was two decades ago, but that no longer translates into more homes changing hands. An aging population, high home prices and substantial transaction costs have made moving less attractive, while rising home equity has made staying put easier. For many established homeowners, the next rung on the housing ladder may increasingly be the home they already own.