When Canadians ask whether they are getting good value for a home they intend on buying, they are usually focused on the local: the province, city or neighbourhood they want to live in defines their sense of what’s affordable.
The Canadian Real Estate Association collects local sales data from across the country and creates a national benchmark price for the cost of a home, which it releases every month. In October, that price fell to $679,600, down 0.4 per cent from September and down 3 per cent year-over-year.
However, that number includes many kinds of homes in Canada: ownership apartments, detached single-family houses, townhouses, farms, duplexes, the list goes on. And each of those categories have local market pressures that shape the price.
To illustrate the reality of that benchmark property price point, we looked at what kind of decent-sized homes are available for sale now in five cities across Canada.
Scroll to the bottom to vote on which house you think is the best deal.
Nova Scotia
38 Kearney Lake Rd., Halifax
Asking price: $675,000
Tucked up on a slight rise above the street, this charming, blue-painted cottage-style home with white trim fits in the bucolic setting of lush garden and huge trees. It may be more than 113 years old, but inside, some recent renovations have maximized the 1,200 square feet of living space. There’s a modest addition to open up the kitchen, and three bedrooms tucked into the eaves of the pitched roof on the upper levels.
The Halifax-Dartmouth market is one of the few that’s bucking the overall slowdown trend with CREA’s local benchmark home price hitting $563,300, up 4.4 per cent year-over-year. Still, the national benchmark is more than $100,000 higher, making Kearney Lake pricier than many other homes in the area.
“We’re higher than the average price when you take in the whole Halifax Regional Municipality, which takes in areas on the outskirts of the city,” said listing agent Peter Halley with EXIT Metro Realty. That said, price rises in the Halifax region have slowed to single digits from the double-digit runaway train of a few years ago.
“Buyers are a little more discerning, looking for what meets their needs or family needs,” Mr. Halley said. He expects, at this price, a young professional couple planning to start a family will be his target demo, especially “if they were looking for coziness and comfort and a nice place to sit outside in spring, summer and fall.”
Quebec
272 4th Ave., Montreal
Asking price: $679,000
Once a rough-around-the-edges blue-collar neighbourhood, Verdun is positively bustling with young couples looking for options like this 1,400-square-foot converted duplex, especially if they are looking to move up from a condo.
“They don’t want to deal with condos any more, there’s more freedom to having a single-family home,” said listing agent David Tardif, with Royal LePage Altitude.
The CREA’s benchmark price for all Montreal property types is at an all-time high of $581,500, up 6.8 per cent from the same time last year. So, while the 4th Avenue house is short on outdoor space – just a small balcony on the second floor and a terrace off the back – it’s long on size and updates compared with other homes at the same price range.
There are new floors and improvements to the kitchen and bathrooms. There may be repair concerns with the 1924 building, but those costs are figured into the price for a home that’s just around the corner from Verdun’s main commercial avenue, Wellington Street.
“I live in Verdun. You do your shopping here, walk to the metro, walk to the gym,” Mr. Tardif said. “I grew up [near] Quebec City in a small village. Here, you feel like you’re in a village.”
The only downfall to the area these days is that it’s become too successful, according to Mr. Tardif. The big-chain restaurants and fast food joints such as KFC are starting to move in. Plus ça change.
Ontario
265 Ridley Blvd., No. 610, Toronto
Asking price: $679,000
Expensive Toronto is always an outlier in CREA’s national benchmark price, even though it fell 5 per cent year-over-year in October to $956,800 for all properties – the lowest level since the first month of 2021.
If you want any kind of ground-related house in Toronto for under $700,000, there’s decent odds it’s a teardown and you’re paying only for the land. But there are lots of condos for sale under that national price point of $679,600, the only drawback being that, if you’re looking for something more than one person can comfortably live in, you’re often looking at more mature buildings outside the city’s core.
In the Bedford Park area of midtown, father-daughter real estate team Adam and Sierra Parsons have a $679,000 listing for a two-bed, two-bath condo apartment that’s more than 1,100 square feet at 265 Ridley Blvd. Recent buyers in the building – which was completed in 1996 and has only 158 apartments, most of which are on the larger side – are often downsizers who already live in the area and like it. “One thing it does lack is a balcony,” Mr. Parsons said of the condo. “There might be a little pushback on that – there’s a lot of people who like to have outdoor space.”
Despite being almost 30 years old, there’s been more interest in this apartment than in another of his listings that’s almost $100,000 cheaper but not suitable to the kind of scale downsizers like. “It’s a two-year-old building but we haven’t got one showing; it’s small – 550 square feet.”
British Columbia
310 Water St., No. 405, Vancouver
Asking price: $679,900
Vancouver remains one of the most expensive housing markets in Canada with a CREA benchmark topping $1.13-million, or 40 per cent more than the national benchmark. Given that, you’re looking at the condominium market for anything under $700,000, and if you want something larger than 600 square feet you’d have better luck outside of Vancouver proper, in neighbouring communities of Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam.
However, there are gems to be found, such as the 778-square-foot loft in Vancouver’s Gastown, one of just 22 apartments in the heritage building that was restored in 2003. It’s open concept with high ceilings and plenty of exposed beam and brickwork features, all of which appeals to the demographic that tends to buy in trendy Gastown.
“A lot of them are artists or work in film. They want to be in Gastown specifically because that’s where their work is. Same thing with tech workers, we’re right across from Microsoft,” said Michelle Gieschen, listing agent with Engel & Volkers Vancouver.
One downside to the Water Street loft is that it lacks its own parking, but the seller is willing to offer a $3,000 credit toward a year-long rental of a parking stall at one of the local parkades. Marco Dehghani, co-listing agent and business partner to Ms. Gieschen, said slowing condo sales has created a buildup of inventory, giving buyers lots of options to consider.
“There’s been a lot of showings. However, the majority of buyers are hesitant to move forward,” he said. “They show interest, but they don’t submit an offer.”
Alberta
60 Sunmount Close, Calgary
Asking price: $679,900
The CREA national home price is about $100,000 higher than the local Calgary price point for all properties ($565,200), but it’s just about exactly the same as the current Calgary standard for detached homes. A good example of a home at that price is this 1,400-square-foot three-bedroom bungalow built in 1980 in the artificial lake district known as Sundance in the southern part of the city. The home did get an interior decor refresh in 2023, giving the space a light and open modern feel, and an exterior refurb in 2024 to boost its curb appeal.
“I grew up in this area. It’s a very popular community with the private lake and it borders Fish Creek Park, which is the largest provincial park inside the city,” said listing agent Jordy Huntrods, with Paramount Real Estate Corp.
Mr. Huntrods describes the local market as balanced, which is a welcome change from a year ago, when half the purchases he saw were by out-of-province buyers who sometimes went overboard, paying top dollar for the relatively affordable Calgary market. Unfortunately, sometimes those out-of-towners may have paid a premium for neighbourhoods a lot less attractive than Sundance: “It’s like they didn’t know what they were buying,” he said.
These days, there are fewer of those folks, but still plenty of middle-class buyers in the market: either downsizers who sold their bigger house, or first-time homebuyers looking for an area with good schools and amenities.
What city do you want to see in the next month's edition?
Each month in The Price Point, real estate reporter Shane Dingman will take a deeper look at a region in Canada and find out what the benchmark price gets you in various cities or neighbourhoods. Let us know which region you'd like to see in the next edition and it could be featured in a special reader section.