Open Market Data

Ontario Cottage Market Data

The monthly board figures behind our forecasts, published in full so buyers, sellers, journalists, and search engines can read, check, and cite the numbers directly.

Source: Habistat · multiple Ontario real estate boards Updated through May 2026 Refreshed quarterly Prepared by John Fincham, RE/MAX Parry Sound Muskoka Realty Ltd.

Each dataset is the full monthly record, waterfront freehold detached, not a summary.

How to read these figures

Months of inventory
How long it would take to sell every active listing at the current pace of sales. Higher favours buyers.
Sales-to-new-listings
Sales as a share of new listings that month. Lower means supply is outpacing demand.
Median days on market
The midpoint time from listing to firm sale. Rising days signal a slower market.
Sale-to-list price
What homes sold for as a share of asking. Below 100% means buyers are negotiating under ask.
12-month trend
Compares the median of the most recent twelve monthly medians with the prior twelve. In smaller regions a single month can swing on a handful of high-value sales, so the 12-month trend is the more reliable read.
What is counted
Every figure is waterfront freehold detached. Haliburton and Kawartha Lakes are reported as one combined market; see the note on that panel for how the blend is calculated.

Provenance. Figures are aggregated by Habistat from MLS® data reported by multiple Ontario real estate boards. Muskoka and Parry Sound run January 2023 to May 2026; Ontario runs February 2023 to May 2026; the combined Haliburton and Kawartha Lakes series runs January 2023 to May 2026 with three months omitted where one market's source data is incomplete. The data is refreshed each quarter after the board reports close.

Beyond the numbers

Data is one piece of the puzzle

These tables tell you where the market has been and which way it is leaning. What they cannot tell you is which bay holds the afternoon sun, which shoreline is clean deep rock and which is weedy and shallow, how a lake fishes, how the boat traffic feels in August, or why two cottages at the same price per foot are not remotely the same buy. That reading comes from time on the water.

Sue and I have spent years on these lakes, from Rosseau and Joseph through the quieter waters across Parry Sound, Haliburton, and the Kawarthas. We read a shoreline and a property the way these tables read a market. Use the numbers here to ground your thinking, then talk to us about the things a spreadsheet will never show you.

John & Sue Fincham · Finding Your Muskoka

Finding Your Muskoka · Cottage Market Data Compiled and maintained by John Fincham
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