What $700,000 buys
This is where the question flips. Below this, buyers ask what they can get. At $700,000 and up, the constraint is usually no longer the house — it is which community you want to be in, and how much of the budget you are willing to spend on that rather than on square footage.
- A well-kept detached home in most established communities, four bedrooms in many, double attached garage in the newer ones.
- A newer or renovated home in the outer southwest and northwest, often with a finished basement and a developed yard.
- Inner-city infill — usually a half-duplex rather than a full detached at this price, but modern and walkable.
What it does not reliably buy is a fully renovated detached home in the premium inner-city southwest communities. That is a different band again.
The question worth asking at this price
Above about $650,000 the buyer pool narrows, and resale becomes a live consideration rather than a theoretical one. Features that are easy to sell at $500,000 — a converted garage, an unusual layout, a heavily personalised renovation — get harder as the price climbs, because the pool of people who want exactly that shrinks.
At this level it is worth asking about every home: who is the next buyer, and is there a large group of them? That question costs nothing now and can be worth tens of thousands later.