While the goal to one day own a home in the Toronto area may be a lost cause for anyone who isn't earning a ridiculous salary, moving well outside the city is often seen as a cheaper way into the real estate market.

However, this is no longer as black and white today, as prices in smaller Ontario cities and towns are surging, too. This is especially the case for a few parts of the province, which just made the list of the places where housing prices are increasing the fastest.

Released by calgaryhomes.ca this week, the index looked at year-over-year growth in the average cost of a home in locales all around the province. One spot was even named the fastest-escalating in Canada overall.

Here are the few places in Ontario where you can still buy a home for relatively cheap 🏠 https://t.co/7imhU6S0nF #Ontario #RealEstate #Affordability

— blogTO (@blogTO) November 8, 2023

Ranked at number one, as of January 2024 sales data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) and the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), is the town on Bancroft, which is around three hours' drive from Toronto and home to only about 4,000 people.

The real estate firm found that the price of the typical property in Bancroft jumped a whopping $71,200 between 2023 and 2024 — the largest dollar value uptick in Canada, as well as the second-largest proportional rise.

This 14.7 per cent spike was especially dramatic given how low the prices were just last year, at least by Toronto standards: $484,800 as of January 2023, compared to $556,000 this past January (still cheaper than a standard condo in T.O., mind you).

Next is Brampton, which saw home prices shoot up $49,223 in one year from $984,450 to $1,033,673 — only a 0.5 per cent change given how high prices already were. This was followed by Sudbury, where prices soared another $47,100 from just $390,800 to $437,900, a 12.1 per cent difference.

Chart of the 10 locales in Ontario where home prices went up the most in the last year from calgaryhomes.ca.

The top 5 was rounded out by Owen Sound, with a hike of $29,600 (5.5 per cent) in the average price, and Cambridge, with a jump of $28,200 (3.9 per cent).

Places like Ottawa, Brantford, Windsor, North Bay and Woodstock were also among the top 10 for most rapid price growth in Ontario. Toronto, meanwhile, came in at 11th-fastest, with averages inching up $10,619 over the 12 months.

Calgaryhomes attributed these leaps to ongoing supply and demand constraints, driven by limited housing in the face of record population growth, immigration and investment.

Gap between real estate prices in the cheapest and most costly Ontario cities hits $1.6 million https://t.co/kkqSqs24Cg #Ontario #RealEstate

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 29, 2023

"This has led to increased competition for available properties, driving prices up," they write, adding that gradually lowering mortgage rates have made buying less expensive and more appealing to those who have been waiting for these costs to go down.