Ontario homes now under $500K account

Roughly 24 per cent of Ontario homes are now valued below $500,000, up from about 17 per cent in 2022, according to new data from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. The shift marks a notable change in a province where affordable homes had been disappearing for more than a decade, though the level remains far below the 67 per cent recorded ten years ago.

The condominium market has led the change.

MPAC found 46 per cent of condos across Ontario were priced below the half-million mark this year, compared with fewer than one in four in 2022. The share of all properties above $1 million dropped from 35 per cent in 2022 to about 25 per cent of the market in 2026.

Smaller Cities See Median Values Drop Below $750,000

At the municipal level, the number of communities with a median home value above $750,000 fell to 65 in 2026, down from 105 four years earlier. Several areas outside the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area — including Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Hamilton, Collingwood, Kawartha Lakes, Gravenhurst and Brock — now have most of their homes below that threshold.

“The past decade has reshaped Ontario’s housing market, and while prices remain raised, there have been corrections from peak conditions,” said Greg Martino, MPAC’s chief assessor and data officer.

The corporation assesses property values for Ontario municipalities.

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Northern Markets Move in the Opposite Direction

Not every part of the province has followed the same pattern.

In Sault Ste. Marie, the share of homes under $250,000 fell from 75 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent in 2026. Greater Sudbury saw a similar decline, dropping from 50 per cent to just two per cent over the same period. Median home values in both cities have continued to climb since 2022.

Communities in the eastern Ontario corridor — North Stormont, South Stormont, North Glengarry and South Glengarry — also recorded median gains of roughly $50,000.

Detached Homes Remain Out of Reach for Many Buyers

Affordability gains have been heavily concentrated in condominiums.

Only five per cent of townhouses were priced under that threshold in 2026, down from 69 per cent a decade earlier. Semi-detached homes at that price point dropped from 52 per cent in 2016 to 15 per cent this year. Among detached properties, just 18 per cent were priced in that range — a sharp decline from 60 per cent ten years ago.

Buyers seeking larger, standalone properties still face significant cost barriers, even as the broader market cools and condo inventory becomes more accessible at lower price points. For households looking at detached or semi-detached options, the path to ownership hasn’t gotten much easier despite the headline-level improvements.