77% of Gen Z Would Consider Leaving Canada’s Biggest Cities for Cheaper Housing—More Than Double Boomers

35,000+ smart investors are already getting financial news, market signals, and macro shifts in the economy that could impact their money next with our FREE weekly newsletter. Get ahead of what the crowd finds out too late. Click Here to Subscribe for FREE.

Canada’s largest cities have long offered the strongest concentration of jobs, universities, transit and entertainment. Yet for many young adults, those advantages are being outweighed by the cost of securing a stable home. New findings show that 77% of Gen Z residents in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver regions would consider buying in one of Canada’s 15 most affordable cities if they could find local work or keep working remotely. That compares with just 34% of baby boomers.

The gap is not simply about youthful restlessness. It reflects a housing market in which even falling prices in some expensive regions have not restored affordability. For a generation still building careers, savings and family plans, leaving a major city is increasingly viewed not as surrender, but as a practical route to ownership and a more manageable life.

The Headline Number Is Striking—but Conditional

The generational divide is unusually wide. Alongside the 77% of Gen Z respondents open to relocating, 56% of millennials, 51% of Gen X and 34% of baby boomers said they would consider buying a primary residence in one of the 15 lower-cost cities identified by Royal LePage. Gen Z’s figure is therefore more than twice the boomer result, but it should not be read as evidence that three-quarters of young adults are preparing to pack immediately.

The question included an important condition: respondents had to be able to find a job locally or continue working remotely. The results came from an online panel of 900 adults in the greater Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver regions, completed from June 2 to June 4, 2026. Sampling was balanced within each region and weighted to reflect their relative populations. Because it was a non-probability web panel, the findings capture sentiment rather than a precise forecast of future migration. They are best understood as a measure of how seriously affordability has expanded the range of places young people are willing to call home.

Why Softer Prices Have Not Solved Affordability

Home prices have eased in two of Canada’s most expensive regions, but the starting point remains daunting. In the first quarter of 2026, the aggregate price was about $1.09 million in the Greater Toronto Area and $1.17 million in Greater Vancouver, despite year-over-year declines of 4.7% and 4.5%. Greater Montreal moved in the opposite direction, rising 3.3% to roughly $645,800. A moderate correction can help at the margins without suddenly making ownership realistic for an early-career buyer.

Royal LePage found that its affordability measure improved in 61 of 62 cities between 2024 and 2026. Even so, “improved” does not necessarily mean affordable. Its calculation assumed a 20% down payment, a three-year fixed mortgage at 4.64% and a 25-year amortization. On a $1.09-million GTA home, the down payment alone would exceed $218,000 under that model. Younger households may therefore see lower-priced regions as the only way to reduce both the monthly payment and the years required to assemble an initial deposit.

Renters Are the Most Mobile—and the Most Exposed

Renters showed greater interest in moving than established homeowners: 52% said they would consider buying in one of the 15 affordable cities if work arrangements allowed it. That makes intuitive sense. A renter may still have a lease, friends and a familiar neighbourhood, but usually does not face the added complications of selling a property, timing two transactions or surrendering a favourable mortgage. The practical barriers to leaving can be lower, even when the emotional barriers remain high.

Young Canadians are also disproportionately exposed to the rental market. Statistics Canada has reported that nearly two-thirds of people aged 15 to 29 rent and that this age group devotes a relatively larger share of income to shelter. For a 25-year-old paying major-city rent, the trade-off can become stark: remain close to career networks while saving slowly, or move somewhere a mortgage payment may resemble the rent on a small apartment. Relocation will not work for everyone, but the appeal grows when rent no longer feels like a temporary stage on the path to ownership.

The Affordable Map Looks Very Different

The most affordable destinations are not merely suburbs at the edge of Toronto or Vancouver. They stretch across the Prairies, northern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Lethbridge ranked first, with an aggregate home price of $338,700 and an estimated mortgage payment equal to 18.9% of monthly household income. Saint John followed at $265,900 and 19.6%, while Thunder Bay ranked third at $339,900 and 20.3%. Red Deer and Regina completed the top five, each requiring no more than 25% of monthly income under the report’s assumptions.

Those figures explain why a cross-country move can enter the conversation. The price of an entire home in Saint John was less than one-quarter of Greater Vancouver’s aggregate price in the first quarter of 2026. Still, the ranking is a comparison tool, not a complete household budget. It uses provincial median income rather than each buyer’s actual salary and assumes a 20% down payment. Property taxes, heating, insurance, transportation, moving expenses and differences in local wages can materially change the calculation once a household begins planning a real move.

Jobs Remain the Gatekeeper

Housing may start the search, but employment usually determines whether a move becomes real. The affordability question itself was conditional on finding local work or retaining a remote position. That caveat matters because lower home prices do not compensate for a large pay cut, an unstable job market or a career path concentrated in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. The flexibility created by widespread remote work earlier in the decade has also narrowed as more employers require regular office attendance.

Statistics Canada’s research on actual movers reinforces that point. Among households that moved to another province, 42.5% cited a new job or job transfer, making employment the most common reason. Another 27.6% cited a desire to be closer to family, while only 5.6% of all household moves crossed a provincial border. For Gen Z interprovincial movers specifically, school was cited by 61.1%. These figures show why stated willingness is much higher than completed migration. A cheaper listing can attract attention in minutes; recreating a career, support network and daily routine in another province is a far larger decision.

Each Big City Has Its Own Exit Route

Residents of the three major urban regions did not choose the same destinations. In the GTA, 55% were open to buying in a more affordable city. Edmonton was the leading choice at 16%, followed by Thunder Bay at 15%, with Charlottetown and Windsor-Essex tied at 14%. The mix suggests that some households are willing to travel far for a major price reset, while others prefer an Ontario market that preserves easier access to family and professional connections.

In Greater Montreal, 48% would consider relocating, with Sherbrooke attracting 29% and Trois-Rivières 25%. Those choices offer lower prices without requiring a move outside Quebec’s language, legal and cultural environment. Greater Vancouver posted the lowest overall relocation interest at 46%, even though it remained the most expensive region. Edmonton again ranked first at 18%, followed by St. John’s at 12%, with Charlottetown and Lethbridge at 10%. The pattern shows that affordability is only one layer of the decision; distance, identity, climate and the ease of maintaining family ties also shape where a move feels realistic.

The Generational Gap Started Before Gen Z

Gen Z’s frustration sits on top of a longer shift already visible among millennials. Statistics Canada found that 16.3% of millennials aged 25 to 39 were living in a census family with their parents in 2021, about double the 8.2% recorded for baby boomers at the same age in 1991. After excluding adults counted as owners simply because they lived in a parent-owned home, the adjusted homeownership rate was 49.9% for millennials, compared with 55.9% for boomers and 56.2% for Gen X.

The pressure was especially pronounced among people in their late 20s. In 2021, 31.1% of Canadians aged 25 to 29 lived with parents, rising to 48.6% in Toronto and 36.9% in Vancouver. Family wealth increasingly affects who can bridge the gap. Bank of Canada research found that the share of first-time-buyer mortgages co-signed by a parent rose from 4% in 2004 to about 11% in 2025. Among the co-signed borrowers studied, 74% would not have qualified for their existing mortgage without that parental backing.

Cheaper Cities Could Inherit the Pressure

A large movement of young buyers would create opportunities for smaller cities, but it could also reproduce the same affordability problem in new places. More residents can support local businesses, broaden the tax base and bring skilled workers into communities that have struggled to retain them. At the same time, an influx of buyers with savings or big-city salaries can push up prices faster than local incomes if construction, infrastructure and services do not keep pace.

CMHC’s housing-supply modelling makes that risk explicit: when one city adds homes and becomes more affordable, people may move there, creating additional demand and requiring even more construction. Nationally, CMHC estimates that Canada would need roughly 430,000 to 480,000 housing starts annually through 2035 to restore affordability, compared with a projected pace near 250,000. Starts did rise 6% in 2025, led by record rental construction and more medium-density “missing middle” housing, but ownership-oriented supply weakened in major markets. The 77% result is therefore a warning for both sides: expensive cities must become easier to remain in, while affordable cities must prepare to stay affordable as they grow.

This Options Discord Chat is The Real Deal

While the internet is scoured with trading chat rooms, many of which even charge upwards of thousands of dollars to join, this smaller options trading discord chatroom is the real deal and actually providing valuable trade setups, education, and community without the noise and spam of the larger more expensive rooms. With a incredibly low-cost monthly fee, Options Trading Club (click here to see their reviews) requires an application to join ensuring that every member is dedicated and serious about taking their trading to the next level. If you are looking for a change in your trading strategies, then click here to apply for a membership.