Most "what can I afford" advice starts with a city-wide average. For a detached house that number hides almost everything that matters, because within one municipality the typical price can swing by $400,000 from one neighbourhood to the next. So we went community by community: every detached sale in the GTA and the commuter belt around it over the last 12 months, what the typical house sold for, how many sold under each budget, and how the elementary schools nearby score.
First, how far each budget goes, region by region
The share of detached homes that sold at or under each budget in the 12 months to September 2026:
| Region | Median detached | At or under $500K | At or under $800K | At or under $1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durham | $890,000 | 3% | 35% | 68% |
| Peel | $1,100,000 | 0.1% | 12% | 38% |
| Toronto | $1,250,000 | 0.1% | 8% | 30% |
| Halton | $1,300,000 | 0.2% | 5% | 20% |
| York | $1,340,000 | 1% | 7% | 17% |
Durham is the only region where a $1M budget buys the typical detached house, and it is where most of the communities below are.
A $500,000 budget: the honest answer is outside the GTA
Across the five GTA regions, only about one detached sale in a hundred closed at or under $500,000, and most of those were small, older homes or houses that needed work. Oshawa had the most, 66 of its 1,231 detached sales. There is no GTA community where $500,000 is a typical price for a detached home.
Where it is typical, a year's worth of sales says: Belleville (median $520,000, 46% of detached sales under $500K), Welland ($550,000, 40%), Peterborough ($560,000, 31%), St. Catharines ($580,000, 30%) and Niagara Falls ($590,000, 31%). Within those cities, these communities put a $500,000 budget in the middle of the market, ranked by the schools nearby:
| Community | Median detached | Sold at or under $500K | School score | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Hill St. Catharines | $440,000 | 77% | 82.2 | 53 |
| Port Colborne Main Street Port Colborne | $460,000 | 64% | 72.6 | 61 |
| Downtown Niagara Falls | $410,000 | 87% | 69.5 | 60 |
| Facer St. Catharines | $450,000 | 83% | 68.6 | 30 |
| E. Chester St. Catharines | $400,000 | 89% | 68.1 | 65 |
| Cherrywood Niagara Falls | $430,000 | 72% | 64.7 | 68 |
| Welland Downtown Welland | $400,000 | 88% | 62.9 | 34 |
| Town Ward 3 Peterborough | $450,000 | 63% | 56.8 | 120 |
St. Catharines' Western Hill stands out: a typical detached price well under $500,000 and nearby elementary schools that score in the top tier of everything we looked at. The cheapest Hamilton neighbourhoods (Homeside, Crown Point, Normanhurst) also sit under $500,000, but the schools near them score in the 40s and low 50s, so we left them off the list.
An $800,000 budget: Oshawa, Whitby, Brampton and pockets of Scarborough
At $800,000 the GTA opens up. These are the communities where the typical detached house sold at or under $800,000, ranked by nearby schools:
| Community | Median detached | Sold at or under $800K | School score | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Whitby Whitby | $800,000 | 55% | 68.5 | 75 |
| Pinecrest Oshawa | $790,000 | 56% | 68.5 | 93 |
| McLaughlin Oshawa | $720,000 | 72% | 66.2 | 124 |
| Oakridge Scarborough | $800,000 | 52% | 65.6 | 31 |
| O'Neill Oshawa | $670,000 | 90% | 64.6 | 122 |
| Southgate Brampton | $790,000 | 56% | 64.6 | 57 |
| Brampton West Brampton | $780,000 | 60% | 63.2 | 91 |
| Centennial Oshawa | $730,000 | 77% | 61.4 | 95 |
| Donevan Oshawa | $680,000 | 92% | 60.9 | 120 |
| Central Park Brampton | $780,000 | 57% | 60.3 | 106 |
Downtown Whitby and Oshawa's Pinecrest give the best school scores at this budget, with about half their detached homes selling at or under $800,000. For the most choice, Oshawa's O'Neill and Donevan had nine in ten detached sales under $800,000.
Just above budget, in communities where the median is slightly over $800,000 but about half the homes still sold under it, the schools are a little stronger:
| Community | Median detached | Sold at or under $800K | School score | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart Lake East Brampton | $840,000 | 35% | 70.4 | 51 |
| Eastdale Oshawa | $820,000 | 49% | 69.8 | 99 |
| Bowmanville Clarington | $820,000 | 47% | 69.7 | 388 |
| Courtice Clarington | $830,000 | 45% | 68.9 | 211 |
| Samac Oshawa | $820,000 | 49% | 64.9 | 72 |
Bowmanville is also the deepest market on this page, with 388 detached sales in a year, which means more homes to choose from in any given month.
A $1,000,000 budget: where the schools really improve
At $1M the choice is less about whether you can find a detached house and more about which schools you get with it. These communities have a typical detached price at or under $1M and nearby schools above the GTA norm (a community score of about 68 is the middle of the pack; 75 and up is the top quarter):
| Community | Median detached | Sold at or under $1M | School score | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lynde Creek Whitby | $890,000 | 63% | 77.3 | 89 |
| Windfields Oshawa | $960,000 | 59% | 75.3 | 63 |
| Duffin Heights Pickering | $960,000 | 67% | 75.2 | 12 |
| Taunton North Whitby | $940,000 | 63% | 75.1 | 49 |
| Meadowvale Mississauga | $990,000 | 53% | 74.9 | 137 |
| Port Whitby Whitby | $980,000 | 56% | 74.0 | 36 |
| Pringle Creek Whitby | $990,000 | 53% | 73.9 | 95 |
| Rolling Acres Whitby | $980,000 | 59% | 73.7 | 97 |
| Mountainside Burlington | $880,000 | 81% | 72.5 | 68 |
| Brock Ridge Pickering | $970,000 | 57% | 72.5 | 42 |
| Palmer Burlington | $970,000 | 61% | 70.9 | 44 |
| Agincourt South-Malvern West Scarborough | $990,000 | 54% | 70.8 | 52 |
| Cliffcrest Scarborough | $950,000 | 62% | 70.5 | 82 |
Whitby is the story here: five of the thirteen communities, led by Lynde Creek, where the typical detached house sold for under $900,000 with schools in the top quarter. Burlington's Mountainside is the other stand-out: 81% of its detached sales were under $1M. Duffin Heights had only 12 detached sales, so treat its median as a rough guide.
Stretch slightly and the school scores jump. In these communities the median is just over $1M, but 38–49% of detached homes still sold under it:
| Community | Median detached | Sold at or under $1M | School score | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amberlea Pickering | $1,020,000 | 49% | 80.6 | 88 |
| Liverpool Pickering | $1,020,000 | 47% | 80.2 | 98 |
| Glen Shields Vaughan | $1,040,000 | 38% | 79.5 | 26 |
| Georgetown Halton Hills | $1,030,000 | 47% | 77.5 | 289 |
| Crosby Richmond Hill | $1,030,000 | 42% | 74.9 | 59 |
Pickering's Amberlea and Liverpool have the highest nearby school scores of any GTA community on this page. There, a $1M budget buys roughly the cheaper half of the neighbourhood.
How to read the school score
The school score is the average EQAO result, the share of students meeting the provincial standard in reading, writing and math in Grades 3 and 6, for the public and Catholic elementary schools within two kilometres of the centre of each community's sales. It uses the 2022–23 results, the latest in our data. Two cautions. It is not a catchment map: a house can sit near a strong school and still be zoned for a different one, so check the board's school locator for any address you are serious about. And a test score says nothing about programs, French immersion, special education or how a school feels to a child. Use it to narrow a search, not to decide one.
How this was calculated
Every detached sale reported through the TRREB feed with a firm date between September 2025 and September 2026, in Durham, Toronto, York, Peel and Halton, plus the markets around it from Niagara and Hamilton east to Peterborough, Northumberland and Belleville. Communities with fewer than 12 detached sales in the year are not shown. Prices are medians rounded to the nearest $10,000; the percentages are the share of that community's detached sales at or under the budget. Sales under $150,000 were excluded as likely data errors. No individual sale is identified.
A median is the middle sale, not the price of a house you would want. At every budget above, half the homes in the community sold for more and half for less, and the cheaper half includes the smaller lots, older kitchens and busier streets. A budget that matches the median buys a typical house for that area, not the best one.
Want this for your budget, not ours?
Tell us your budget, the commute you can live with, and what matters for school, and we will run the same analysis for you: every community, with the homes on the market in it right now.
Analysis prepared by The Renavu Team from TRREB sold data and EQAO 2022–23 school results. Figures describe past market activity and are not a prediction or a guarantee of what any home will sell for. School scores are an average of nearby schools, not catchment assignments. This is general market information, not an appraisal, and not financial or mortgage advice. Data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by TRREB or PropTx.
