New evidence suggests the pandemic has tempted many Canadians to leave big cities, and in B.C., Port Moody sits near the top of the list.
Over the last year, Port Moody was the fifth most searched for city in Canada when it comes to houses, according to new Google Trends data.
The data tracked Canadians who Googled “houses in…” followed by a city name.
The top five placement comes as searches for "house for sale," "mortgage loans," "mortgage calculators" and "mortgage rates" are the highest they’ve been in five years, according to Google Canada’s Director of Finance Industry Marshall Self.
“The huge shift towards working from home has also opened up new geographic possibilities for many Canadians. Google Search trends indicate Canadians are looking to relocate outside of city centres, into cottages or buying properties in suburban and rural areas,” wrote Self in a recent blog post.
“In fact, many of the top regions Canadians searched for ‘houses in …’ last year were quite the opposite of your typical big city.”
The top 10 cities include:
- Cannington, Ontario
- Orléans, Ontario
- Clarington, Ontario
- Surrey, BC
- Port Moody, BC
- Kawartha Lakes, ON
- London, ON
- Laval, QC
- Abbotsford, BC
- Langley, BC
