With some of the cheapest, as well as some of the most expensive, housing prices in the GTA, it’s no surprise the Oshawa-Durham zone sits smack-dab in the middle of Ontario’s red-hot housing market.

According to the 2021 Re/Max Housing Affordability in Canada Report, the average selling price in Durham is $775,987. That’s up more than $180,000 from 2020, but still quite a bit less than buyers in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton must shell out. Those three communities, along with west coast markets Vancouver and Victoria, all have average selling prices this year in excess of $1 million.

Selling prices in Durham vary considerably across the Region, with three Oshawa neighbourhoods - Central Oshawa ($600,000), South Oshawa ($650,000) and Lakeview ($666,000) among the least expensive, while areas to the east and north are the most expensive.

Scugog ($950,000), Bowmanville ($1 million) and Uxbridge ($1.3 million) have the highest-selling houses in Durham.

The affordability of homes in Canada is the focus of the report, and it’s worth noting that Oshawa-Durham also sits in the middle - at least in Ontario - when it comes to the percentage of household income needed to pay the mortgage. Durham homeowners use 29 per cent, on average, of their income on mortgage payments.

The five communities with selling prices at $1 million-plus? Those homeowners shell out between 42 per cent and 50 per cent of their total income to pay the bill.

St. John’s, NFLD and Regina, Saskatchewan - who enjoy the cheapest housing prices in the country (under $350,000) - also put the lowest percentage of their family income into their mortgage payments at 11 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

The struggles of everyone else in the country have prompted would-be home buyers to get creative in affording a home, claims the Re/Max report.

One in three Canadians, in fact, are considering “workarounds” to buy a home amidst declining housing affordability in Canada and supply shortages.