Hamilton-Burlington Corridor · May 2026
Hamilton–Burlington Corridor Real Estate Market Report — May 2026
$885,938
Average price
2878
Active listings
35
Avg. days on market
Most market data online is provincial or GTA-wide — too broad to tell you what’s actually happening on a street in Ancaster or by the lake in Stoney Creek. This report does the opposite: it puts the corridor’s six core communities side by side, so you can see how Burlington, Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek, and Waterdown each moved in May 2026, and where the corridor agrees and disagrees with itself.
A note on geography before the numbers: Burlington and the City of Hamilton are the two distinct MLS® service areas here. Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek, and Waterdown are communities within the City of Hamilton — their figures are sub-markets that sit inside Hamilton’s city-wide totals, not separate additions to them. That’s why this report compares the communities rather than summing them.
The six markets at a glance
| Community | Avg. price | YoY | Market leans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burlington | $1,205,121 | ▲ 6.6% | Seller |
| Ancaster (est.) | ~$1,100,000 | ≈ flat | Balanced |
| Dundas (est.) | ~$899,000 | ▼ ~1.5% | Balanced |
| Waterdown (est.) | ~$966,000 | ▼ ~2% | Balanced–buyer |
| Stoney Creek | $773,150 | ▼ 4.7% | Buyer (mild) |
| Hamilton (city-wide) | $755,202 | ▼ 3.3% | Balanced |
| Corridor total (Burlington + Hamilton) | $885,938 | ▲ 1.2% | Balanced |
Burlington, Hamilton, and Stoney Creek figures are ITSO / Cornerstone MLS® data for May 2026 (current as of June 2, 2026). Ancaster, Dundas, and Waterdown rows are third-party estimates pending an ITSO community pull — see the methodology note at the end. Sub-community rows sit within Hamilton’s city-wide totals and are not additive. The corridor total combines only the two distinct service areas, Burlington and the City of Hamilton.
Two things jump out. First, the corridor is not one market — it’s a $450,000 spread from Hamilton’s city-wide average to Burlington’s. Second, and more surprising, most of Hamilton’s premium communities sit above the city’s own average: Ancaster, Dundas, and Waterdown all carry a meaningful premium over the $755,202 Hamilton-wide figure, because that city-wide number blends in the lower-priced central and east-end neighbourhoods. The “Hamilton price” you see quoted is a floor for several of its own suburbs, not a ceiling.
The price ladder: what a premium looks like
Ranking the communities by average price — and measuring each Hamilton community against the city-wide Hamilton average of $755,202 — shows how much extra a postal code costs inside the same city.
| Rank | Community | Avg. price | Premium vs. Hamilton city avg | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burlington (separate city) | $1,205,121 | +59.6% | Tight detached market, lake access, GO commute |
| 2 | Ancaster (est.) | ~$1,100,000 | +45.7% | Established executive detached, low turnover |
| 3 | Waterdown (est.) | ~$966,000 | +27.9% | Newer-build family suburb, longer days on market |
| 4 | Dundas (est.) | ~$899,000 | +19.0% | Character homes, walkable core, limited supply |
| 5 | Stoney Creek | $773,150 | +2.4% | Mix of lakeside and mountain newer-build; most active |
| — | Hamilton (city-wide) | $755,202 | reference | Blends premium suburbs with lower-priced core |
Burlington sits in its own tier as a separate city. Within Hamilton, Ancaster is the clear premium address, while Stoney Creek trades closest to the city average — and, as the next tables show, is also the corridor’s busiest market right now.
Where prices actually moved: single-family vs. condo/townhouse
The headline averages hide a split that runs through the entire corridor: detached and semi-detached homes are holding value far better than condos and townhouses. This breakdown is available at the segment level for the two full ITSO service areas.
| May 2026 | Burlington SF | Burlington Condo/TH | Hamilton SF | Hamilton Condo/TH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median price | $1,335,000 (▲ 6.8%) | $705,000 (▼ 10.2%) | $765,000 (0.0%) | $577,500 (▼ 8.4%) |
| Average price | $1,550,627 (▲ 14.9%) | $791,197 (▼ 4.1%) | $840,166 (▼ 2.1%) | $566,055 (▼ 6.6%) |
| Sales | 121 (▼ 7.6%) | 101 (▲ 7.4%) | 374 (▼ 11.6%) | 168 (▼ 9.7%) |
| New listings | 253 (▼ 19.2%) | 196 (▼ 23.7%) | 826 (▼ 21.3%) | 402 (▼ 19.6%) |
| Days on market | 25 (▲ 8.7%) | 39 (0.0%) | 32 (▲ 14.3%) | 46 (▲ 17.9%) |
| Months of supply | 3.5 (▼ 20.5%) | 4.4 (▼ 8.3%) | 4.5 (▼ 8.2%) | 6.1 (▲ 10.9%) |
In both cities the same pattern holds: single-family supply is tight and prices are flat-to-rising, while the condo and townhouse segment carries more months of supply, longer days on market, and softer prices. Burlington’s detached market is the tightest pocket in the corridor at 3.5 months; Hamilton’s condo segment is the most buyer-favourable at 6.1 months. If you take one thing from this report, make it this: the corridor is two markets stacked on top of each other — a firm detached market and a soft attached one — and which one you’re in matters more than which city you’re in.
Days on market and the balance of power
| Community | Avg DOM | YoY | Months supply | Sale-to-list | Market leans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dundas (est.) | ~26 | — | — | — | Balanced |
| Ancaster (est.) | ~29 | — | — | — | Balanced |
| Burlington | 32 | ▲ 6.7% | 3.9 | 97.9% | Seller |
| Hamilton | 36 | ▲ 16.1% | 5.0 | 97.7% | Balanced |
| Waterdown (est.) | ~38 | — | — | — | Balanced–buyer |
| Stoney Creek | 40 | ▲ 33.3% | ~5.6 | 96.8% | Buyer (mild) |
Across every community with year-over-year data, homes are taking longer to sell than they did in spring 2025 — the clearest corridor-wide signal in this report. Burlington remains the fastest of the full-data markets at 32 days and the only one firmly favouring sellers; Stoney Creek is the slowest and most buyer-friendly, with sale-to-list slipping to 96.8% as sellers there give a little more ground. The smaller communities bracket the range, with tightly held Dundas and Ancaster moving quickly and newer-build Waterdown sitting longer.
Sales and inventory momentum
Price tells you where the market has been; sales and listings tell you where it’s going. Here the corridor splits in an unexpected way.
| Community | Sales | Sales YoY | New listings YoY | Active YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stoney Creek | 60 | ▲ 36.4% | ▼ 23.4% | — |
| Burlington | 222 | ▼ 1.3% | ▼ 21.2% | ▼ 14.9% |
| Ancaster (est.) | ~33 | ≈ 0% | — | — |
| Hamilton | 542 | ▼ 11.0% | ▼ 20.7% | ▼ 7.7% |
| Corridor (Burl + Ham) | 764 | ▼ 8.4% | ▼ 20.8% | ▼ 9.5% |
The standout is Stoney Creek, where sales jumped 36.4% year-over-year — one of the strongest gains anywhere in the corridor — as softer pricing (median down 8.4%, price-per-square-foot down nearly 19%) pulled sidelined buyers back in. Everywhere else sales are flat to down, but the common thread is supply: new listings fell roughly 20–23% in every full-data market. Demand cooled, but seller restraint cooled supply even faster, which is why inventory hasn’t piled up and months of supply stayed balanced despite slower sales.
Year-to-date: the steadier read
A single month — especially an average — can swing on which homes happened to close. The January-through-May view is calmer.
| YTD (Jan–May) | Burlington | Hamilton | Corridor (Burl + Ham) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 825 (▲ 4.3%) | 2,168 (▼ 9.3%) | 2,993 (▼ 5.9%) |
| Average price | $1,101,528 (▼ 3.1%) | $745,309 (▼ 4.6%) | $843,498 (▼ 3.0%) |
| New listings | 1,750 (▼ 13.1%) | 5,141 (▼ 13.6%) | 6,891 (▼ 13.5%) |
| Days on market | 38 (▲ 31.0%) | 43 (▲ 16.2%) | 42 |
The year-to-date numbers are a useful corrective to May’s headline. May’s combined average finished slightly up (+1.2%), but that was a high-end Burlington month; over the full five months the corridor’s average is down about 3.0%, softer in every segment, with days on market running well ahead of last year. The trend is gradual softening, not recovery — May was the noise, not the signal.
The nine-month trend
Reading each city’s average month by month shows how different the paths have been. Hamilton drifted down through the fall, bottomed near its seasonal low in December, and recovered through spring to $755,202. Burlington held in a narrow band all winter, dipped in April, then spiked 15% in a single month to $1,205,121 as a cluster of expensive detached sales closed. Stoney Creek moved the opposite way — softening on price even as its sales surged. The lesson the three share: in markets this size, a single month’s average says more about which homes sold than about what any given home is worth. The steadier signal is the year-to-date line, and that one points modestly down.
Home values are still adjusting
Underlying-value measures agree with the price data. Hamilton’s ShowingTime Housing Value Index — which strips out seasonality and sales mix to track real value — fell across the board in May, with condos and townhouses down more sharply than detached. Burlington’s index fell for both segments too, even in a month its detached prices rose, confirming that May’s Burlington gains were about sales mix rather than a broad lift in value. Stoney Creek’s near-19% drop in price-per-square-foot tells the same story from another angle. Across the corridor, the softness is real, concentrated in the attached segment, and not just a quirk of which homes traded.
Affordability
Affordability has been one of the few measures moving in buyers’ favour — mostly on the condo and townhouse side, where prices have given the most ground. In both Hamilton and Burlington, the typical household qualifies more comfortably for a median-priced attached home than it did a year ago. Detached affordability is more mixed: roughly flat to slightly improved in Hamilton, slightly worse in Burlington where detached prices rose. Net read: buying power is recovering most where prices are falling.
The national backdrop
The corridor’s gradual softening plays out against a national market that, in May, showed its first real signs of turning. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported home sales nationally up 5.5% month-over-month in May 2026 — the first meaningful monthly gain of the year — though still down 5.1% year-over-year. CREA’s senior economist noted the increase was broad-based but driven disproportionately by Ontario. New listings eased about 1% month-over-month, leaving roughly 200,000 properties on the market nationally, about 2.8% below the long-term seasonal average, while the national sales-to-new-listings ratio tightened to 49.2%. The national Composite MLS® Home Price Index dipped just 0.1% month-over-month, with CREA describing prices as having largely stabilized after softening earlier in the year, and the national average price reached $702,079 — up 1.5% year-over-year and back above $700,000 for the first time in nearly two years. The corridor’s mix of slower sales (Hamilton, Burlington), a local sales surge (Stoney Creek), and broadly flat-to-soft pricing is consistent with that national picture of stabilizing-to-firming conditions, with local factors driving the month-to-month differences between communities.
What this means if you’re buying or selling
Selling a detached or semi-detached home? You’re on the stronger side of the corridor — tight supply, firm-to-rising prices, and real competition for well-presented listings, especially in Burlington and Ancaster. Price to recent comparables; the market rewards accuracy more than ambition right now.
Selling a condo or townhouse? The math is different: more months of supply, longer days on market, and prices that have settled meaningfully below a year ago. Price to where the market is today, not where it was in spring 2025.
Selling in Stoney Creek? Volume is genuinely encouraging — 36% more homes sold than a year ago — but that demand was met by giving ground on price. Competitive pricing is moving homes; aspirational pricing is the reason the average days-on-market stretched to 40.
Buying? The condo and townhouse segment is the most buyer-friendly it has looked this cycle, corridor-wide. Detached buyers have less room, but a longer average time on market than a year ago means more breathing room than the peak years offered. Get pre-approved before touring — in the faster pockets, homes don’t wait.
Our guides on how to prepare your home for sale, key steps to buying a house, and essential steps for buying an investment property go deeper.
City-by-city quick reads
Burlington — The corridor’s priciest and tightest market. Average price jumped to $1,205,121 (▲ 6.6%) on a strong detached month, single-family supply fell to just 3.5 months, and the city is the only full-data market firmly favouring sellers. Read the full Burlington report.
Hamilton (city-wide) — Balanced and gradually softening. Average $755,202 (▼ 3.3%), with detached essentially flat and condos/townhouses carrying 6.1 months of supply. The city-wide figure sits below several of its own suburbs. Read the full Hamilton report.
Stoney Creek — The corridor’s momentum story: sales up 36.4% even as the median fell 8.4% to $707,500 and price-per-square-foot dropped nearly 19%. Mild buyer’s market today, but a thinning listings pipeline could tighten it by summer. Read the full Stoney Creek report.
Ancaster (estimate pending ITSO pull) — Hamilton’s premium detached address, averaging roughly $1.1M with low turnover (~33 sales) and quick ~29-day sales. Year-over-year pricing is roughly flat — premium markets are holding value better than the corridor average.
Dundas (estimate pending ITSO pull) — Tightly held character market, averaging roughly $899,000 with the corridor’s quickest sales (~26 days) and limited supply. Pricing is down only marginally year-over-year.
Waterdown (estimate pending ITSO pull) — Newer-build family suburb averaging roughly $966,000, with the longest days on market among the smaller communities (~38) — a sign of more standing inventory and more room for buyers to negotiate.
Frequently asked questions
Which corridor community is most affordable right now?
On average price, the City of Hamilton’s city-wide figure ($755,202) and Stoney Creek ($773,150) are the lowest of the six, while Burlington ($1.2M) and Ancaster (~$1.1M) sit at the top. But “affordable” depends on segment — Hamilton’s condo and townhouse market, at 6.1 months of supply and falling prices, is the most buyer-favourable pocket in the corridor.
Are home prices dropping across the corridor in 2026?
Gradually, yes. Year-to-date the corridor’s combined average is down about 3.0%, softer in every segment and more so for condos and townhouses. May’s combined average ticked up 1.2%, but that reflected a single high-end month in Burlington rather than a turn in the trend.
Why are Ancaster, Dundas, and Waterdown shown as estimates?
Those three are communities within the City of Hamilton and don’t have standalone published ITSO reports the way Burlington, Hamilton, and Stoney Creek do. The figures shown are current third-party estimates; the exact ITSO community-level numbers can be substituted from the Cornerstone Monthly Indicators dataset.
Is the corridor a buyer’s or seller’s market?
It’s genuinely split. Burlington and the detached segment broadly favour sellers (3.5–3.9 months of supply); Hamilton’s and Stoney Creek’s condo/townhouse segments favour buyers (5.6–6.1 months). The corridor-wide reading of about 4.7 months is balanced, but that average masks the two segments pulling in opposite directions. For more terms, see our real estate glossary.
Methodology and sources
This report draws on two tiers of data, kept clearly separate:
ITSO / Cornerstone MLS® (Stan’s data, May 2026, current as of June 2, 2026). Burlington, the City of Hamilton, and Stoney Creek figures come directly from ITSO Monthly Indicators compiled by the Cornerstone Association of REALTORS® and ShowingTime Plus, LLC — the same source behind the individual Burlington, Hamilton, and Stoney Creek reports.
Third-party estimates (Ancaster, Dundas, Waterdown). These three communities sit within Hamilton’s service area and have no standalone ITSO report; their rows use current third-party figures (Zolo and comparable aggregators) and are marked (est.). They should be confirmed against an ITSO community-level pull before being treated as exact.
“Single Family” includes detached and semi-detached homes; “Townhouse/Condo” includes townhouse, condo, and attached properties as classified by ITSO. The corridor total combines only Burlington and the City of Hamilton — the two distinct service areas — since the four smaller communities are already counted within Hamilton. Average price, days on market, and sale-to-list figures in corridor totals are sales-weighted; combined median and months-of-supply figures are blended approximations. Percent changes use rounded figures and may not sum exactly.
National figures are from the Canadian Real Estate Association’s May 2026 statistics package: stats.crea.ca.
Curious how these numbers apply to your specific property or neighbourhood? Get in touch for a no-obligation conversation, browse current corridor listings, or get a free home value estimate. New reports are published monthly — see the full archive on the market reports page.
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