DirectOffers
You sit at your kitchen table with a calculator, staring at a target that keeps moving. You want a house in Ontario, but you keep hearing about high costs and tightening budgets. Statistics Canada reported in its September 2026 Canadian Housing Survey that 23.2% of Canadian households lived in housing unaffordable to them in 2024, spending 30% or more of their income on shelter costs.
That broad number covers renters and owners alike. Among homeowners with mortgages, 26.1% lived in unaffordable housing in 2024. Those national survey results provide context for household budgets; they do not measure current GTA home prices.
Does the TRREB report mean prices are dropping?
TRREB’s September 2026 report recorded 5,040 GTA sales, down 9% year-over-year. The average selling price was $1,006,409, down 5.1%.
A regional average is a starting point for research. It does not tell you what a particular home is worth or how many competing offers it will attract. Compare recent sales of similar homes in the neighbourhood before choosing an offer price.
What does a 14.4% drop in new listings mean for your offer?
TRREB counted 16,500 new listings, down 14.4% year-over-year. New listings measure homes entering the market during the month; they are not the total number of homes available for sale.
With both sales and new listings lower, those headline figures alone do not establish the level of competition for your chosen home. Look at the property, its local market and your financing before deciding what to offer.
How can you save money when buying a home?
When you buy a house without a buyer’s agent, compare the full cost of the transaction. Do not assume that being unrepresented automatically reduces the purchase price or guarantees a commission saving.
You can learn how DirectOffers works to understand the steps involved in preparing your own offer. Include legal fees, closing costs and ongoing ownership expenses in your budget.
Check your mortgage pre-approval and the payments your lender actually quotes. Pre-approval is not a guarantee of final financing. Statistics Canada’s 30% shelter-cost measure is a survey benchmark, not a mortgage-approval rule or a personal spending target.
