Not only have unwaveringly high housing prices and interest rates in Toronto kept many people out of the real estate market in the last year, but they are actually driving people out of the province completely.

RE/MAX's 2024 Tax Report, released Tuesday morning, outlines how people are fleeing Toronto and its overpriced housing scene, opting to instead settle in cheaper parts of the country.

Based on the company's data, Alberta welcomed the most interprovincial migrants last year, most of whom were, perhaps unsurprisingly, from Ontario.

Alberta's push for Ontarians to move there seems to have worked as many eye property https://t.co/oqLjVSxAy2 #Ontario #Alberta

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 1, 2023

"Eroding affordability levels are slowly shifting migration patterns and
changing the landscape in major Canadian centres," the brokerage writes.

"Tax rate increases, in tandem with record-high housing values and mortgage rates, have sparked a post-pandemic exodus from the country's most expensive markets."

By the third quarter of 2023, Ontario saw more people leaving than moving in, with 6,262 residents having relocated to the Prairie province. (The average price of a home in Calgary by year's end was just $539,313 with a $0 land transfer tax, compared to $1,096,994 with a $19,024 land transfer tax in the GTA).

Alberta actually saw a bigger influx of newcomers from Ontario than from any other province last year, not only because of its cheaper real estate and lack of land transfer tax, but also the job opportunities it has heavily advertised in Toronto specifically.

Toronto's busiest subway station is currently a giant ad for Alberta https://t.co/hp0fOklt2W #Toronto #Alberta

— blogTO (@blogTO) September 21, 2022

There are also changes on deck for Toronto that are putting would-be buyers off even more, like a new property tax increase, which is in addition to municipal and provincial land transfer taxes that make the city home to the largest real estate levies in all of Canada.

The land transfer tax, per the RE/MAX report, impacts some 28 per cent of residents' decisions about where in Canada to buy a house (or whether to buy at all), and is of particular concern to Millennials and Gen Zs.

"As a result, there is a growing wave of younger people who are choosing to leave major centres and provinces to attain home ownership," the firm's experts write, adding that this has led to not only a large exodus from Ontario, but within it, from big cities to small towns.

People are yet again leaving Ontario en masse and moving to other provinces😬https://t.co/GxQ655A17n #Toronto #Ontario #Canada

— blogTO (@blogTO) December 22, 2023

Unfortunately, as anyone in the GTA knows, even more rural parts of the province have become too expensive for most, which is why people are seeking greener pastures in Alberta and provinces like Nova Scotia.

The Atlantic province welcomed 5,300 people from elsewhere in Canada in the first three quarters of last year.