Do photos showing luxurious mansions depict the real Quebec childhood home of Vice President Kamala Harris and prove she was not raised in a middle-class family? No, that's not true: The images in this post display houses not found on the street where she lived in Montreal, the main city in Canada's Quebec province. At least one of the photos shows a house in New Brunswick, Canada. A representative of Harris cited articles that confirmed that the vice president had lived in an apartment on the outskirts of Montreal.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on September 27, 2024. Beside the images of three large red brick houses and one photo of Harris, the caption said:
Does she ever tell the truth about anything .
Research courtesy of Robert Winters
KAMALA HARRIS - Grew up in Westmount Quebec, as she reports a Middle Class, Working Class Neighborhood. Here are some pictures of the home she grew up in and some stats on This Working Class Neighborhood.
WESTMOUNT QUEBEC
Westmount, TMR rank among 5 most unequal municipalities in Canada, analysis shows
Westmount, which has a population of about 20,000, the most exclusive enclave has a median household income of $360,000, according to Centraide Montreal data.
The average home sales price in Westmount is $2,275,000, or $878/sqft. When you buy a home in Westmount, you can expect to pay between $1,337,500 to $2,997,500.
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Oct 23 17:12:30 2024 UTC)
During high school, Harris lived in Westmount, a city on the Island of Montreal in Quebec. The photos in this post don't show where she lived.
An October 13, 2024, Washington Post article (archived here), titled "These five tumultuous years in Montreal shaped Kamala Harris," reported that she and her family lived in an apartment on the second floor of a duplex on Grosvenor Avenue, in the lower Westmount area.
The Post reported that Harris and her family had moved to Westmount because of its proximity to Westmount High School (archived here), one of a dwindling number of Quebec public schools where most students were English speakers. A September 10, 2024, column in The Toronto Star titled "How Harris's Montreal Years Shaped Her Identity" confirmed that.
Though a classmate cited by the Post described Westmount High School's neighborhood as "the Beverly Hills of Montreal," nothing suggests that Grosvenor Avenue, a half-hour walk away from the school, is that.
While the exact address of Harris' duplex could not be located, a search on Google Maps for Grosvenor Avenue displayed images (from 2020 to 2021) of modest, slightly worn apartment buildings and townhouses; not mansions or large, free-standing houses, as seen in the post on Instagram.
The red brick house at the top of the post is from a March 21, 2018, Maclean's article (archived here), titled "In Vancouver real estate, a shack costs $7 million." The article identified the house's location as Utopia, New Brunswick, Canada. A Google Lens reverse image search (archived here) revealed that the Utopia, New Brunswick home image also appeared in a July 7, 2020, Westmount Independent column (archived here) on luxurious houses (page 20).
Another reverse image search (archived here) using Google Lens showed that the house at the center bottom of the image on Instagram was taken from an October 26, 2021, Westmount Independent column (archived here). That column reported that the residence is located on Westmount's Côte St. Antoine Rd (page SL-18).
A third reverse image search (archived here) using Google Lens led to the image of the house on the bottom left of the post on Instagram. That photo was taken from an April 11, 2023, Westmount Independent column (archived here) on luxury real estate. The column reported that the residence is located on Avenue Belmont (page 13).
The caption of the post on Instagram lists information taken from a September 21, 2023, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation article (archived here) titled "Westmount, TMR rank among 5 most unequal municipalities in Canada, analysis shows." While the caption implied that this information proved Harris was raised in a wealthy family, context is missing. The article said:
Income inequality, known for its corrosive effects on health, happiness and community ties, is worse in Westmount, Que., than in any other place in Canada, according to a ranking assembled by the Local News Data Hub at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The highest earning 10 per cent of households in Westmount made nearly 11 times more than the lowest earning 10 per cent in 2020.
Lead Stories contacted Harris' press office about the claim on Instagram. In an October 23, 2024, phone call, a representative referred Lead Stories to the above articles in The Washington Post and The Toronto Star.
When this fact check was written, AFP Fact Check and Snopes had reviewed the same claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Kamala Harris can be read here. Our fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential elections are here.
