Though would-be home buyers are well aware that Toronto's real estate market somehow continues to get increasingly wild, competitive and overpriced, it seems that other parts of the region are quickly catching up.

When it comes to condos specifically, after a brief pandemic lull, the city proper had an inconsistent rocky return to hitting record high sales volumes in the second quarter of 2021, with prices also spiking to reach, on average, 44 per cent more than 2017's housing peak.

But, it seems the allure of living in parts of the downtown core has faded over the course of the health crisis, and relocating elsewhere — whether it's to a nearby suburb or another part of the country — is a popular phenomenon.

Condo prices in locales such as Oshawa and Pickering have skyrocketed as a result, while prices elsewhere in the GTA are likewise starting to rise at a way faster pace than in T.O.

Average home prices are now above $1 million in 90 per cent of the Greater Toronto Area https://t.co/DmEG1z1r72 #Toronto #GTA #TorontoRealEstate #RealEstate

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 17, 2021

The latest numbers from Strata.ca show that for the first time in six months, listings on the platform for condos outside of the city  provided way higher returns on investment than those inside of it in August.

In fact, when looking at the condo buildings where prices have lept the most in the last year, only one Toronto property made the top 10 list, with the rest located in Burlington, Oshawa, Hamilton and Mississauga — a clear deviation from past trends, where Toronto complexes always dominated.

Prices at Toronto's Pears on the Avenue Condos in Yorkville rose, on average, 41 per cent, while units in Burlington's Lakepoint Condos saw a whopping 53 per cent price hike in the same time period

The remaining up-and-coming properties in the top 10 — again, none of them in Toronto, but four of them in Oshawa — saw prices inflate between 34 and 40 per cent during the last 12 months after people bought for cheap and sold for a pretty penny.

Condo prices up 50% in Oshawa as people keep leaving Toronto https://t.co/IWtfvZu5at #Oshawa #Toronto #Ontario #RealEstate

— blogTO (@blogTO) March 23, 2021

"This may simply reaffirm what many of us have known all along: Homebuyers are increasingly looking outside city limits for affordability, and the data is finally starting to reflect that trend," Strata.ca's experts say in their new report released this week.

"By looking outside the city, you're buying into a market at much cheaper prices with the potential to earn back that investment at a much quicker pace."

Though things may be getting more expensive at a faster rate outside the city, prices, of course, remain highest downtown, where condos average at $895 per square foot versus $647 in Burlington or $505 in Oshawa.

Weirdly enough, though, average rent prices in Toronto were outpaced by those in another Ontario city last month: Barrie, of all places.