Should I sell my house in Niagara and move to Toronto because Toronto home prices hold up better?

Toronto prices drop too. Among homes Yifei has handled since 2023, a detached house in Niagara Falls he valued at about $930,000 is now worth a little over $800,000, and a condo in downtown Toronto that had a $1.75 million offer is now around $1.4 million. When you move, you sell one home and buy another at roughly the same time. If the one you sell is cheaper, the one you buy is cheaper too. What matters is the gap between the two, not which city holds its value better.

Toronto isn't immune

Yifei has been a realtor for 11 years and sells in both Niagara and the Greater Toronto Area. People often ask him the same thing: I want to sell my place in Niagara Falls and move to Toronto, because Toronto holds up better. How much less would I lose?

He answers with two homes he has handled himself:

A typical detached house in Niagara Falls. He valued it at about $930,000 in 2023. Today it's a little over $800,000, down roughly $120,000 to $130,000.
A condo in downtown Toronto. In 2023 the owner had an offer of $1.75 million and didn't sell. Today it's around $1.4 million, down roughly $350,000.

A condo and a detached house aren't a fair one-to-one comparison. His point is simply that Toronto goes down too.

The two markets are linked

Some of the buyers who come to Niagara have sold a home in Toronto first. They take that money, buy something bigger here, and keep some cash.

Say one of those buyers could have sold their Toronto home for $1.5 million, and now it only fetches $1.3 million. They arrive in Niagara with $200,000 less to spend. When enough buyers are in that position, Niagara sellers have to adjust too.

That's why Yifei says the two markets are connected: when one moves, the other follows.

Which situation are you in

You want to move to Toronto for your kids' school or for work: that's a lifestyle need, and you can judge for yourself whether the extra money is worth it.
You want to move only because you think Toronto holds up better: Yifei's honest advice is not to bother.
You haven't decided: run the numbers first, then decide.

What to do

Start with what your current home would sell for. By Yifei's estimate, the kind of detached house that goes for a little over $800,000 in Niagara would cost around $1.5 million in Toronto, a gap of roughly $700,000.
Figure out where that gap comes from: your own savings or a bigger mortgage. If it's a mortgage, have your lender work out how much more you'd pay each month.
Selling and buying also come with closing costs, including land transfer tax and legal fees. Have your lawyer work out the exact amount using the official rates.
Put your current home and the one you want to buy side by side. What you're comparing is the price gap, not which city rises more or falls less.

Yifei's view

Yifei lives in Niagara and sells homes in both markets. Ask him how much less you'd lose by moving, and his answer is: stop asking which side holds up better, and run the numbers on both sides first.

Ask about your own situation

Where your current home is, which home you want to buy, and how you'd cover the difference: those decide whether the move is worth it. To ask about your own situation, reach out to Yifei (RE/MAX, efay.ai).

Yifei Lin is a RE/MAX real estate agent serving the Greater Toronto Area and Niagara since 2015. For advice on your own situation, reach him at efay.ai.