If you’ve been waiting for the GTA housing market to make its next move, November 2025 gave us a very clear signal: Prepared buyers and realistic sellers win.
Below is your November 2025 Durham Region real estate market update with a zoomed-out look at the GTA housing market and a zoom-in on Whitby / Oshawa / Ajax / Pickering home prices.
Big Picture: What’s Happening in the GTA
TRREB’s November numbers confirm what many of us have been feeling on the ground: the GTA is in a cooler, buyer-leaning, but not collapsing market.
Key GTA stats – November 2025 (all TRREB areas, all home types):
- Sales: just over 5,000 homes sold, down about 16% year-over-year. This means demand is down.
- New listings: just over 11,000, down slightly vs. last year, but still high enough to give buyers plenty of choice.
- Average price: roughly $1.04M, down about 6–7% compared to November 2024.
- Home price index (benchmark): down in the mid-single-digit range year-over-year.
- Average days on market: roughly one month or a bit more, which is longer than we saw in the previous few years.
Month-over-month from October to November, the story is more stable than the headlines suggest. Sales and new listings dipped modestly (as they often do heading into winter), and while the benchmark price softened slightly, the overall average price actually edged up a touch on a seasonally adjusted basis.
In plain language: Prices are lower than last year, but they’re not falling off a cliff. Activity is slower, People are cautious.
At the same time, the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate has come down significantly from the 5% peak in 2024, which is finally giving buyers some breathing room on monthly payments. But this hasn’t translated into a frenzy. Instead, we’re in a more normal, data-driven environment where strategy matters again.
Zooming In: Durham Region Real Estate Market Update
Now let’s talk about what’s happening where I actually work day-to-day: Durham Region—Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering and surrounding communities.
November data for Durham shows a balanced but cooler market.
Durham Region – November 2025 snapshot:
- Average sale price: around the low- to mid-$800Ks,
- Down roughly 1–2% from October
- Down around 7% compared to November 2024
- Sales: 622 transactions,
- Down from October
- Down in the mid-teens percent year-over-year
- New listings: 1,186 New Listings
- Down sharply from October (roughly a third fewer listings month-over-month)
- Almost flat compared to last year
- Average days on market:
- Generally sitting in the four- to six-week range, clearly longer than the rapid-fire markets of the last few years.
- Months of inventory: roughly 3.5–4 months, which is solid balanced-market territory.
- Sale-to-list-price ratio: around 98%, meaning most homes are selling just under asking, not dramatically above.
One key insight from the Durham data: despite slower sales, Durham still leads the GTA in affordability and competitiveness—it has one of the lowest average sale prices in the GTA, and yet well-priced homes still move.
With the GTA average price just over $1.03M and Durham in the $800K-range, you’re looking at roughly a $200,000 discount to live in family-friendly communities like Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, and Pickering—with reasonable commutes and strong schools.
Put simply: Durham homes are cheaper than the GTA average, but the good ones still move when they’re priced correctly.
What This Means for Buyers
If you’re a buyer reading this, especially in the 28–65 working-professional range, this is where it gets interesting.
- More time, less pressure.
With homes sitting a month or longer on the market in many parts of the GTA and Durham, you’re not racing 15 offers on day one. You can book a second showing, bring your inspector, and keep conditions without automatically losing.
- Prices reset, not crashed.
A 6–7% price decline year-over-year, combined with lower interest rates, means many buyers are discovering that monthly payments are starting to feel more manageable, especially in Durham’s more affordable pockets.
- Durham = value play.
If you’ve been priced out of central Toronto, the Durham Region real estate market update for November reinforces the same theme I’ve been seeing for years: detached homes, legal duplexes, and family townhomes in Durham are still one of the best value trades in the GTA housing market.
Our advice to buyers right now:
- Get fully pre-approved, not just pre-qualified.
Rate cuts and softer prices mean your numbers may look different than they did a year ago—but we don’t guess. We run the math.
- Target “patient but motivated” sellers.
Listings sitting 25–40 days with one or two price adjustments are often where you can negotiate below asking with conditions and still get the deal done.
- Zoom in neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood.
Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, and Pickering each have micro-markets. Some pockets around top schools and transit are still competitive; others are offering serious value. This is where my data and on-the-ground experience really matter.
What This Means for Sellers
For sellers, this is a skills market, not a “put it on MLS and hope” market.
The narrative I’m seeing in Durham and across the GTA is consistent:
- Prices are softer than last year.
- Buyers are cautious but active.
- The homes that sell well are the ones that get price and presentation right from day one.
Durham’s new listings dropped significantly from October to November, which means if you come to market now, you’re competing with fewer new listings—but buyers are picky and have options.
If you’re thinking of selling in the next 3–6 months:
- Price with the market, not your memories.
Buyers know prices are lower than 2024. We need to anchor your list price to today’s comparables, not what a neighbour sold for in the peak.
- Win on presentation.
With more choice and longer days on market, listings that look “okay” get skipped. The ones that are decluttered, staged, professionally photographed and marketed across multiple channels are the ones still commanding strong results.
- Expect negotiations.
Most successful deals involve back-and-forth on price, closing date, and conditions. Planning your floor price and terms ahead of time is critical so you’re not negotiating from emotion.
Our Take & Strategy Going Forward
For our clients, that means:
- Buyers: I’m using this window to help you secure quality properties at reset prices, often with inspection and financing conditions back in play.
- Sellers: I’m leaning heavily on stats—months of inventory, absorption rates, and micro-level comparables—to price strategically and avoid chasing the market down.
- Investors: Durham’s numbers still support strong cash flow and long-term appreciation potential for well-bought properties, especially legal duplexes and homes with future garden-suite potential.
Ready to Talk Strategy?
If you’d like to go deeper than this November 2025 snapshot:
- Book a 1:1 strategy call with us to walk through your timeline, budget, and options in the GTA and Durham Region.
- Request a custom home value report for your property in Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, or surrounding communities.
When you’re ready to move, we’ll make sure your decisions are driven by real numbers, not just headlines.
