Introduction
Somebody told me last week that $1.2 million “doesn’t buy anything anymore” in Markham. They said it with total confidence, the kind people have when they’ve heard something secondhand and never bothered to check it. So I checked.
Turns out $1.2 million isn’t some inflated number that used to mean more. It’s the average sale price across Markham right now, every home type combined. Detached, semi, townhouse, all of it. A number that used to sound like a stretch is now just… average.
If you’re a family who outgrew your first home and you’ve been sitting on the fence because the headlines made $1.2 million sound untouchable, here’s what that number actually means for you.
The Market Shifted and Nobody Sent the Memo
Markham’s average sale price is down close to ten percent from where it sat a year ago. Homes are sitting on the market for three to four weeks now, not three days with five competing offers. Sellers are accepting financing conditions and home inspections again, the things that basically disappeared during the bidding war years.
None of that made the evening news. But it changes the math for anyone trying to move up.
So What Does $1.2 Million Actually Get You
Right now, that number puts you solidly into semi-detached territory, with a real backyard and not a patio slab. It also covers most of the larger three and four bedroom townhomes with finished basements, the kind a family actually grows into instead of out of. And in some of Markham’s older, established pockets, it lands you in a proper detached home. Not a brand new build with a four hundred dollar a month Tarion fee, but a solid family house on a real lot, walking distance to a school that’s been good for thirty years.
"$1.2 million today buys roughly what $1.4 to $1.5 million bought two years ago. That’s not a sales pitch. That’s just what the numbers say.
Sherwood Forest and Amberglen, Where the Math Works Cleanest
I send a lot of move-up families into Sherwood Forest and Amberglen specifically, because this is the neighbourhood where the math plays out cleanest. You’re close to Markham Stouffville Hospital. Your kids have a real shot at Markham District or St. Brother André for high school, with St. Patrick and William Armstrong feeding in below that. The lots actually have yards, not afterthoughts.
Homes there run anywhere from the $750,000 range up past $4 million. That spread means $1.2 million isn’t an outlier number in this neighbourhood. It’s right in the middle of what real families already pay to live there.
The Part Nobody Talks About
You’re probably not just buying at $1.2 million. You’re also selling your current place, and that price softened too. So the real question isn’t “can I afford a $1.2 million house.” It’s “what’s my actual net cost to close the gap between what I sell for and what I buy for.” That gap is almost always smaller than people assume, because both numbers moved in the same direction.
I’ve walked enough families through this math to lose count. The number that scared them on paper almost always turns into a few hundred dollars a month once you run it properly. That’s the conversation that matters. Not the sticker price on a listing.
And If the Rate Is What’s Really Holding You Back
You can refinance a rate. You can’t refinance the price you locked in today. Marry the house, date the rate. If rates drop later, you adjust. If they don’t, you’re still living in a home that fits your family instead of one you’ve outgrown for two more years.
Your kids aren’t waiting on a better rate to grow up. There’s no reason you should be either.
Want to Know What Your Own Numbers Look Like?
Every family’s math is different. What you’d net on your current place, what $1.2 million actually buys in the neighbourhood you want, that’s specific to you, not a blog post.
