Looking for a GTA House Under $1 Million? Try These Areas

Twenty communities in the Greater Toronto Area had median sale prices below $1 million for single-family homes in April, with several in Durham.

By Josh Sherman | 2 minute read

With a budget of under $1 million, Greater Toronto Area homebuyers who prefer houses to condos still have lots of options, and a new report from digital real estate platform Wahi suggests where to search for the best deals.

Wahi analyzed non-condo transactions — these include detached and semi-detached homes as well as row homes and townhomes without maintenance fees — to identify where houses were selling for less than $1 million in April.

Overall, there were 20 communities (out of 30) across the GTA with median sold prices for non-condos below the $1 million mark last month, with Durham region dominating the top 10. Six of the top 10 most affordable municipalities for single-family homes were in Durham, led by Oshawa. Oshawa had the lowest median price ($775,000) for non-condo housing anywhere in the GTA.

Oshawa also saw the second most single-family homes sell for below $1 million of any GTA community. Some 143 Oshawa single-family homes sold for less than $1 million last month, behind only Brampton, where 215 homes sold in this price bracket. Toronto’s former borough of Scarborough placed third with 123 transactions.

The majority of non-condos that sold for less than $1 million had two or three bedrooms. Only Brock, a township in Durham, had the median sale price for four-bedroom homes in the six-figure range ($942,500). Out of the 4,172 non-condos that changed hands in April, some 1,176  (or about 28%) sold for under $1 million, according to Wahi analysis of Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and Information Technology Systems Ontario data.

The Best Deals in the GTA 

For homebuyers looking to buy a house for less than $1 million, there’s more to consider than selling price and sales volume. Bidding activity affects how attainable an area is and how likely homebuyers are to get a deal. For communities where houses sold for a median price of under $1 million, the vast majority were in overbidding territory this April. However, four saw homes selling below-asking. Wahi ranked GTA by communities by their median underbid/overbid amounts to gauge which areas had the most favourable conditions for homebuyers (a lower median overbid amount suggests less bidding competition).

Despite Durham’s more attainable pricing, a few communities in the region were relatively tame in terms of bidding activity. Looking at the differences between list and sold prices for homes under $1 million, Brock — the third-most-affordable community for single-family homes — had the most favourable conditions for homebuyers on a budget. It had a median underbid amount for single-family homes of $18,900 below asking.

While overall overbidding activity declined in the GTA in April, it remains strongest for non-condos in the price bracket below $1 million. All but four communities were in overbidding territory for these houses. However, 16 of 28 in the $1 million to $1.49 million bracket were underbid, and all but three in the $1.5+ bracket were underbid. 

How Wahi Analyzes Overbidding and Underbidding Neighbourhoods

Wahi compares the differences between median list and sold prices to calculate a median overbid/underbid amount to determine whether neighbourhoods are in overbidding or underbidding territory. Median overbid and underbid amounts are calculated by subtracting the list price from the sold price of each individual listing in a given neighbourhood. These are then ranked by the median of all subtractions. Any communities with fewer than five sales in April were excluded from the rankings.