The GTA real estate market continues to shock, awe and sicken potential homebuyers who, let's face it, are pretty much out of luck in most segments unless they already own a home to sell.

The latest report from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) shows that average home prices were up 18.5 per cent on a year-over-year basis in March of 2022, landing around $1.3 million — slightly down month-over-month from February's near-record high of $1,334,544.

These figures pertain to the average selling price of all homes — detached, semi-detached, townhouse and condo — across every part of the region. The 905 (suburbs) actually boosted this number in March of 2022 with a much higher volume of sales and a slightly higher average selling price ($1,346,331) than the 416. That's not something you see every day.

When broken down even further by market segment and location, additional numbers jump out.

Detached homes within the City of Toronto proper, for instance, were up 9.5 per cent year-over-year in March with an average price of $1,920,018. After months upon months of double-digit gains, 9.5 doesn't seem all that bad.

Townhouses in Orangeville, on the other hand, shot up by a staggering 50.84 per cent, year-over-year, on the MLS Home Price Index (HPI), reaching a new average price of $978,972 last month.

Image via TRREB.

Orangeville, a town of about 30,000 people in Dufferin County, is just over an hour away from Toronto by car.

Like many other cities in this geographic range, it has seen both home sales and prices skyrocket admid the COVID pandemic. Experts believe this "urban exodus" phenomenon was caused by downtowners fleeing their cramped condos for bigger, cheaper houses elsewhere in the region once everyone started working from home.

It remains to be seen how migration back into the city will change real estate prices in Toronto as offices reopen. But I can say with some certainty that detached houses won't be getting cheaper any time soon.

At one point, buyers searching for a detached home would have paid far less in Orangeville than Toronto, but these days there's not too much of a difference: The average price of a detached (39 of which were sold in Orangeville last month) was $1,194,537.

JUST RELEASED! TRREB forecasts pace of price growth to slow this year🏠. Access TRREB’s latest #MarketWatch Report for insights on March market stats, statements From TRREB Experts
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FULL REPORT HERE ➡️🔗 https://t.co/vAK5ceOiQR ⬅️ pic.twitter.com/OisgtZC0R2

— Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (@TheReal_TRREB) April 5, 2022

Condo prices are going up in Oakville too, posting a 49.6 per cent gain on the MLS Home Price Index but remaining under the $500,000 mark on average as of March 2022.

With an average condo apartment price of $462,263 to Toronto's current average of $831,351, there are still deals to be found in that segment of the market. 

Condos, in fact, fared the best last month of all segments tracked by TRREB in terms of sales volume (the GTA market as a whole saw sales dip year-over-year by 30 per cent last month thanks to the record 15,628 homes sold in March of 2021.)

"While sales were down year-over-year for all major market segments, condominium apartment transactions dipped by a much lesser annual rate," notes the board.

"The MLS Home Price Index Composite benchmark was up by 34.8 per cent year-over-year in March 2022.... The annual growth rates for the MLS HPI and average selling price differed, in part, because the mix of homes sold in March 2022 shifted in favour of condominium apartments which generally sell for a lower average price compared to other home types."