Are GTA Home Prices Going Up or Down? August 2026 Update

The quick read on GTA home prices (August 2026):

• Fewer homes for sale: new listings down 14.1% and active listings down 11.3% from a year ago. Buyers were still out, they just had less to choose from.
• GTA home prices still under last year (average $993,410, down 2.7%; benchmark down 4.5%) but flat against July once you adjust for the season.
• The number that matters for a fall sale is the relist gap. Homes that sold in August had been on their current listing 35 days (LDOM) but on the market 51 days from their very first listing (PDOM). The extra 16 days are the cost of pricing too high the first time. Oakville: 39 days (LDOM) versus 65 (PDOM), the widest gap of the four cities.
• Burlington, Oakville and Milton all down about 3% on the benchmark; Mississauga down 4.7%. Freehold holding better than condos everywhere.

Source: TRREB Market Watch, Halton and Peel regional reports, HPI benchmark summary, August 2026.

GTA home prices in August 2026 stayed below last year but stopped falling month over month, in a market with fewer homes for sale and buyers who kept buying. Sales were 5,057, down 2.1% from a year ago. New listings were down 14.1%. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says the drop in sales was arguably caused by lack of choice, not lack of interest, and that less choice plus more competition could bring renewed price growth in the months ahead. That is the board’s read. Mine is that the most useful thing in this month’s report is not a price at all. It is the distance between two days-on-market numbers, and what that distance says about how to list a home this fall in Oakville, Mississauga, Milton and Burlington.

What is the relist gap, and why is it the story this month?

Every sale in the report carries two clocks. Listing days on market (LDOM) starts the last time the home was listed. Property days on market (PDOM) starts the first time it ever hit the market, and it keeps running through cancellations and relists. In August the GTA averaged 35 days (LDOM) and 51 days (PDOM). Those 16 days are homes that came out at a hopeful number, sat, were pulled, and came back at a real one. Call it the relist gap: PDOM minus LDOM.

In the four western markets the gap runs from 18 days in Mississauga and Burlington, to 20 in Milton, to 26 in Oakville, where the average home that sold in August had been on its current listing 39 days (LDOM) but on the market 65 days from its first listing (PDOM). The gap is a rough count of how many sellers priced to what a neighbour was asking rather than what a neighbour got. It can cost more than time. A home that relists arrives in front of the same buyers with its history attached: how long it has been listed and how many times. Buyers who see that may try to negotiate harder, and the longer a home sits, the less they may be willing to pay for it compared with a fresh listing.

Here is why this matters right now rather than in a normal year. GTA home prices aside, supply is tighter than it has been all year, so a well-priced home has less competition than at any point in 2026. The reward for getting the number right in week one has gone up. The penalty for testing has not gone down.

Where do GTA home prices sit in each city, and what do you do with them?

Oakville

Composite benchmark $1,135,400, down 3.1% on the year. Detached homes benchmarked at $1,586,700, sales averaged $1,324,472 across 203 transactions, and the median was $1,200,000. Oakville sold at 95% of asking on average, the lowest of the four, with the widest relist gap. That combination is not a weak market. It is a market where a share of sellers came out high, sat through August, and gave the discount back on the way down. If you are listing in Oakville this fall, whether that is a Morrison bungalow or a townhome in West Oak Trails, the plan is a number built from what closed on your street since June, not from what is currently listed around you. There were 957 homes available in Oakville at month end, and a buyer looking at yours is looking at some of them too. What separates a home from the rest of that list is condition, presentation and a price that matches what has actually sold. Get those three right and the homes that are still sitting at a hopeful number work in your favour, because yours is the one that looks like value beside them.

Mississauga

Composite $874,400, down 4.7%, the softest of the four for a second month. Detached $1,252,700, freehold townhomes $872,700, condo apartments $496,000. Mississauga is by far the largest of the four cities, so 435 sales and 2,361 homes available at month end are normal for its size and not a warning sign on their own. What matters is the mix: 849 of those available homes are condo apartments, against 109 condo apartment sales in the month. If you are selling a condo in Mississauga, especially in the towers around City Centre, that ratio is the number to plan around, because your buyer has more choice than any other buyer in the four cities. Presentation and price both have to be right on day one. If you are buying a condo there, the reverse applies. With that much choice a buyer can often negotiate beyond the price: the closing date that suits them, conditions on financing and on reviewing the status certificate, inclusions like appliances, and parking or a locker where the building allows it.

Milton

Composite $862,300, down 3.2%. Detached $1,154,500, freehold townhomes $789,100. Milton was the fastest market in August: 29 listing days, 98% of asking, and only 503 homes available at month end. Newer stock, the lowest detached entry point of the four, and not much of it. Milton sellers who prepare properly get rewarded quickly here. For Milton buyers, having a pre-approval or a rate hold in hand before you start looking puts you in a stronger position to negotiate, because the seller knows your offer can close.

Burlington

Composite $849,900, down 3.0%, the smallest decline of the four for a second month running. Detached $1,209,900. Freehold townhomes at $889,200 were the most resilient home type in any of the four cities, down just 1.7%. Burlington is steady rather than dramatic, which is what Burlington sellers have been getting all year and what makes it the easiest of the four to plan a sale in. Fewer surprises, fewer relists, and a buyer pool that has stayed consistent.

What should a seller do with this in the 60 days before listing?

When someone in one of these four cities calls me about selling this fall, the market report is not where the conversation starts. It starts with five questions. Why are you thinking of moving? What needs to happen, and by when? What do the mortgage and the equity look like at a conservative number? Where do you work, and what does the commute need to be? What does the family need on the other side? The answers set the timeline. The price comes later, after I have walked the house and we have gone through the sold comparables together. My role is to guide that conversation with the evidence. The plan is the seller’s, and we build it together.

Walking the house matters more this month than usual because of the relist gap. The benchmark tells you what a typical home in your area is worth. It does not know your kitchen is original. A dated home in a street of renovated ones prices a full tier below the renovated comps, and pretending otherwise is how a 35-day sale becomes a 65-day sale. Once the number is right, the seller chooses how much of the preparation I coordinate, from a full plan with the trades, stager and cleaners organized, to a list of recommendations and introductions they handle themselves. Either way the goal is the same: arrive in week one ready, priced to what sold, and sitting under the search threshold buyers actually use, so the home shows up in the searches of everyone who can afford it.

What should a buyer do with this?

GTA home prices in every home type and every one of the four cities are still below a year ago. What changed over the summer is choice: there were 11% fewer homes for sale at the end of August than a year earlier. TRREB’s framing is that buyers now face a trade-off between waiting for more certainty and buying before values move higher. That is the board’s view, and here is where mine differs. Nothing in this report tells us prices are going up. Supply is tighter, and that is one factor among many, alongside rates, employment, trade and how many sellers decide to list this fall. Buying because you are worried about missing something is not a plan. Buying a home that fits your life at a payment you can carry comfortably is, and that plan works whether prices move up, down or sideways from here.

The conservative version looks like this. Have a pre-approval or a rate hold in place before you start looking; it tells you your real range and puts you in a stronger position to negotiate. Work your numbers on the rate you are actually being offered. If you want a margin of safety, run them a second time at the posted rates in TRREB’s report, around 5.5% for one year and 6% for three and five, and see whether the payment still fits. That is your choice to make, not a rule. Either way, know your affordability budget before the first showing, so every home you walk through is one you can actually buy. When a home is one you would seriously consider, that is when we pull the sold comparables and work out what it is worth to you.

Upsizing, downsizing or retiring: what does the spread tell you?

If you are moving between home types in the same city, the number that matters is not the benchmark. It is the spread between the home you own and the home you are moving to, and August moved it a little.

For a downsizer in Oakville, the gap between the detached benchmark and the condo apartment benchmark is just over a million dollars, a shade narrower than a year ago. Condos fell by a larger percentage, but detached homes gave up more actual dollars. The equity you release by moving down is roughly what it was, which means the decision does not need to wait for the market. It can rest on the timing that suits you, and on sequencing the two transactions so you are not carrying two homes or none. For an upsizer in Milton, the step from a freehold townhouse to a detached home is about $365,000 on the benchmark, roughly $22,000 less than last August. Both sides fell, the top fell a little more, and the step got slightly shorter. If you are deciding whether to sell first or buy first, the tight supply in Milton and Burlington argues for lining up the purchase side before you list, while a condo owner in Mississauga is usually better off selling first, since that is where the buyer has the most choice.

For retirees looking at a move to a smaller home or a community setting in Oakville or Burlington, the same rule applies: the spread is stable, the market is orderly, and the planning question is about the life on the other side, not the month you list.

What does August mean if you are a non-resident seller or buyer?

For a non-resident selling a home in one of these four cities, days on market matters more than GTA home prices; it is a timeline problem before it is a price problem. The Section 116 process starts only after a firm sale, and until the clearance certificate arrives the buyer’s lawyer holds back a share of the price in trust, typically 25% and in practice often more. Add the 51 to 65 days it took the average August sale to find its buyer from first listing, and the whole timeline stretches. The remedy is the same as for any seller: price to what sold, come out ready, and shorten the first clock so the second one starts sooner. Confirm the exact holdback with your real estate lawyer before closing.

For a non-resident buyer, status decides everything before the market does. Canadian citizens and permanent residents buy in these four cities with no federal restriction and no speculation tax. Work permit holders can buy but owe Ontario’s 25% non-resident speculation tax. The federal purchase ban on other foreign buyers is scheduled to expire on January 1, 2027. The full breakdown is in Can an American buy a house in Ontario.

GTA home prices, August 2026, by the numbers

August 2026	Oakville	Mississauga	Milton	Burlington	GTA
Composite benchmark (YoY)	$1,135,400 (-3.1%)	$874,400 (-4.7%)	$862,300 (-3.2%)	$849,900 (-3.0%)	$925,900 (-4.5%)
Detached benchmark	$1,586,700 (-3.3%)	$1,252,700 (-5.7%)	$1,154,500 (-4.7%)	$1,209,900 (-3.5%)	$1,209,600 (-4.5%)
Freehold townhouse benchmark	$975,400 (-6.8%)	$872,700 (-5.9%)	$789,100 (-4.3%)	$889,200 (-1.7%)	$919,000 (-4.4%)
Condo townhouse benchmark	$680,100 (-5.9%)	$692,800 (-7.2%)	$584,000 (-5.5%)	$639,900 (-5.5%)	$666,500 (-6.2%)
Condo apartment benchmark	$562,000 (-6.1%)	$496,000 (-6.9%)	$520,200 (-4.5%)	$511,800 (-4.7%)	$531,200 (-7.1%)
Sales	203	435	122	193	5,057
Average price	$1,324,472	$898,510	$977,576	$1,020,937	$993,410
Median price	$1,200,000	$842,000	$900,000	$897,000	$850,000
Active listings	957	2,361	503	706	24,482
Sold to list	95%	97%	98%	97%	n/a
Days on market, current listing (LDOM)	39	36	29	38	35
Days on market, from first listing (PDOM)	65	54	49	56	51
Relist gap (PDOM minus LDOM, days)	26	18	20	18	16

Benchmarks are MLS Home Price Index values from the TRREB HPI summary for August 2026. Sales, prices and days on market are from the TRREB Halton and Peel regional reports and Market Watch, August 2026. The relist gap is PDOM minus LDOM, my own calculation from those figures.

Wondering which clock your home would be on?

Let’s look at what actually sold on your street since June and where your home and home type sit today. Message me and I’ll walk you through what it would sell for now and what you could step into.

Frequently asked questions

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Damir Strk is a Broker with RE/MAX Realty Specialists Inc., Brokerage, and has spent more than 25 years walking houses and pricing them for sellers and buyers across Oakville, Mississauga, Milton, and Burlington. Market data source: Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) Market Watch and regional reports, August 2026.