Before 2019, it was pretty normal for a detached single-family home in the Kitchener-Waterloo region in Ontario to sell for less than $500,000. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic spending frenzy upended everything, and for a few months in early 2022 home prices doubled; the average in the area exceeded $1-million.
Over the next few years, a series of shocks, including a rise in interest rates, caused price deflation. By the summer of 2025, the Canadian Real Estate Association’s benchmark price in Kitchener-Waterloo fell below $800,000, and by December it reached $752,000. There has been some price growth in 2026; the April benchmark for detached homes was $779,000.
So what can you get in today’s market for around that price point?
209 Willowdale Ave., Waterloo, Ont.
Asking price: $769,900
This three-bedroom raised bungalow, with an in-law suite in the basement, is typical of the 1970s-style suburban homes that sprouted all over this region as it doubled in population from the late fifties to the early eighties, (it has more than doubled again in the decades since). This home is well-maintained but not cutting-edge in terms of its interior design, and sits on a large lot.
Listing agent Donny Bijowski, with Red and White Realty Inc., said buyers interested in this home like that it is centrally located near college and university campuses, and the in-law suite could be a “mortgage helper.”
Homes such as this are still in demand, but there are elements that turn off some buyers who look for bigger houses on smaller lots. “You go back 20 years ago, and everybody wanted a 60- by 180-[foot] lot. Today, nobody wants yard maintenance; they are maybe working in Toronto and commuting,” he said.
Mr. Bijowski finds that getting sellers to accept that 2022’s million-dollar pricing is out of reach comes down to explaining how family budgets are under stress by everything from mortgage rates to the skyrocketing cost of gasoline.
200 Madison Ave. S., Kitchener
Asking price: $797,911
On the other side of town, this 120-year-old house has been given a completely contemporary refresh inside and out. It features two in-law suites (making a total of five bedrooms), though listing agent Idris Baig, broker with EXP Realty Inc., says neither is a legal apartment, though the main-level suite has access to a separate backyard and has been used for Airbnb rentals by the current owner.
“This is not really a family-oriented neighbourhood per se,” said Mr. Baig. It is located on the south side of Kitchener’s city core, closer to many former and current commercial and industrial sites. The area has been gentrifying however, and Mr. Baig said young families gravitate toward the city’s edges, where some of the region’s most highly rated schools are located.
The likely buyers here will come from local tech companies, the large insurance company workforces or the universities, all sources of young professionals, which he says have helped keep the selling prices in the region fairly stable compared to other similar-sized communities in Ontario.
115 Filbert St., Kitchener
Asking price: $789,900
A more family-oriented version of downtown Kitchener is the East Ward, a historic residential district with plenty of century homes, including this American foursquare (notable for their boxy look, and a typical four-rooms over four-rooms post-Victorian layout) brick home built in 1929.
“We get quite a few first-time buyers through the house, people who have condos or townhouses and are looking to get a detached,” said Elyse Rose, listing agent with Corcoran Horizon Realty. Many potential buyers are locals who might have grown up in this area and are looking to move back home.
The walkable neighbourhood has cafés and small-scale retail, and is about a 20-minute stroll from King Street and the city core. “If you walk down Filbert, all the homes have been so well maintained and kept the character,” she said.
This house also has an in-law suite in the basement (not a legal rental unit), and the upper two floors both have outdoor space and charming sunrooms on each level. Ms. Rose suggests that the large unfinished attic is more bonus space waiting to be enhanced. This home is attracting interest from multigenerational families as well. “If they had their in-laws or older grown kid, an adult, it’s really hard for those people to either afford rent or buy their own home,” she said.