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Oshawa
Durham's big city: a university, a hospital, GO train and the lowest city prices.
Oshawa in numbers.
Pick a month and watch the numbers move. Average price, sales, inventory and days on market for Oshawa, compared with the rest of Durham Region.
Price trend, Jan to Sep 2026
Oshawa average sale price by month, against the Durham average. The selected month is highlighted.
Average price by town
What the typical home sold for in each Durham town. Oshawa is highlighted.
Durham sales by property type
Share of sales across all of Durham Region by style of home.
Supply vs. demand in Oshawa
New listings against homes sold, month by month.
Oshawa breakdown
Oshawa against the Durham Region figure, for the period you picked above.
Oshawa month by month, 2026
Every month of 2026 so far for Oshawa. The period you picked is highlighted.
10-year average
2016 to 2025Terms: MOI = months of inventory. SNLR = sales-to-new-listings ratio. DOM = days on market. SP/LP = sale price as a percent of list price. Data from the Central Lakes Association of REALTORS® (CLAR) and Habistat, January to September 2026. Property type figures are for all of Durham Region. For general information only.
Why people choose Oshawa.
Why people move here
The most affordable of the larger Durham cities, with Ontario Tech University, Durham College, Lakeridge Health, an Oshawa GO station and the Tribute Communities Centre.
Homes and neighbourhoods
A wide range from entry-level detached homes and townhomes to condos and new builds, including newer north-end communities like Windfields.
Events and community
Doors Open Oshawa, Parkwood National Historic Site, Oshawa Generals hockey and downtown events.
Oshawa is growing fast.
How many people call Oshawa home, and how fast that number is rising.
Growth, 2021 to 2025
Census check: Oshawa counted 159,458 people in the 2016 census and 175,383 in 2021, a change of up 10.0%.
Census counts: 2021 Census of Population summary from the Region of Durham. Estimates: Region of Durham Monitoring of Growth Trends, which adds an allowance for census undercount, so estimates run higher than census counts. The 2026 figure is our projection, not an official count. Canada's 2026 census results are not out until 2027.
How Oshawa became Oshawa.
From the first settlers to today, the moments that shaped the town.
Where the name comes from
In 1842 the post office needed a new name. Oshawa was adopted, said to mean “where we must leave our canoes.”
Indigenous roots
Before 1760 Mississauga traders loaded furs onto canoes at Oshawa harbour, bound for posts at the Credit River.
The French build a trading post near the harbour, though it is abandoned after a few years. Its ruins later shelter some of Oshawa's earliest residents, many of them United Empire Loyalists.
Oshawa is incorporated as a village, eight years after the post office took the name Oshawa. A gazetteer a few years earlier had listed a population of about 1,000 people.
Oshawa becomes a town, in what was then East Whitby Township. The McLaughlin carriage works, which moved to Oshawa in the late 1870s, were already becoming the engine of the local economy.
Col. R. S. McLaughlin and “Billy” Durant sign a 15-year contract, and the McLaughlin Motor Car Company begins making cars with Buick engines. It is the start of Oshawa's long identity as Canada's automotive capital.
General Motors of Canada is created, with McLaughlin as president. The company becomes the backbone of Oshawa's economy, and its plants shape the city's neighbourhoods, jobs and community life for generations.
Oshawa gains city status on March 8 after annexing land to the south. The population grew from about 4,000 to 16,000 during the 1920s, as car-making jobs drew workers from across the region.
The Oshawa Strike against General Motors begins on April 8. On April 23 the company meets most demands but does not recognize the union, in a landmark labour dispute that is still remembered in Canadian history.
The original section of Highway 401, then called Highway 2A, opens. The new highway would go on to become the main road link between Oshawa and the rest of southern Ontario.
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, now Ontario Tech University, opens, and Trent University Durham follows with its own campus in 2010. Oshawa becomes a university city as well as a manufacturing one.
After the last car rolled off the line on December 20, 2018, the plant reopens and completes its first Canadian-made Chevy Silverado. Oshawa's century-long auto story carries on into a new chapter.
In February General Motors announces a new $63 million investment in its Oshawa assembly plant, only weeks after hundreds of workers there were laid off. By September the average home sells for $680,252, down 4.9% since January.
History summarized from Wikipedia: Oshawa, Global News: GM invests $63 million in Oshawa plant. Wikipedia text is available under CC BY-SA.
Famous people from Oshawa.
Politicians, athletes, Olympians and entertainers who were born, raised or have lived in and around Oshawa.
Ed Broadbent
PoliticianBorn in Oshawa. Represented Oshawa in Parliament from 1968 to 1990 and led the federal NDP from 1975 to 1989.
Stephen Poloz
EconomistBorn in Oshawa. Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2013 to 2020.
Gordon Conant
PoliticianAn Oshawa lawyer who served as Premier of Ontario in 1942 and 1943.
Donald Jackson
Figure skaterBorn in Oshawa. World champion in 1962 and the first skater to land a triple Lutz in competition.
Sandy Hawley
JockeyOshawa-born Hall of Fame jockey and one of the best-known riders in Canadian racing.
Daniel Caesar
MusicianGrammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter from Oshawa.
Compiled from public sources, mainly Wikipedia: List of people from Oshawa, and the people’s public biographies. “From” means born, raised or lived here, and some have since moved away. This list is for local interest only. We have no connection to the people listed, and they do not endorse us or our services.
Thinking about Oshawa?
Talk to Cheryl and Charlie for a straight answer on what your budget buys here, or what your home is worth.
Prices and market figures are CLAR and Habistat averages for 2026 and change monthly. Town details are general. Estimates only. Your lender, lawyer and tax adviser have the final word. Right At Home Realty, Brokerage.