Here’s where you can buy a house for under $1M in the GTA

Finding a home for under $1 million can be a challenge in the Greater Toronto Area, particularly if you are looking for a house, not a condo.

The average price for a detached home was $1,658,217 in Mississauga last month, and the average selling price of all homes in the GTA was $1,156,167.

But a new report from digital real estate platform Wahi found 20 communities across the GTA with median sold prices for non-condos below the $1 million mark last month.

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.

Out of the 4,172 non-condos that changed hands in April, some 1,176 (or about 28 per cent) sold for under $1 million, according to Wahi analysis of Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and Information Technology Systems Ontario data.

The report found 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 at $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. 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 at $942,500.

Homebuyers looking to buy a house for less than $1 million may also want to consider bidding activity.

While overall overbidding activity declined in the GTA in April, it remains strongest for non-condos in the price bracket below $1 million. And for communities where houses sold for a median price of under $1 million, the vast majority were in overbidding territory this April.

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.

See the full report from Wahi here.

Lead photo of Oshawa: Google Maps