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It’s a tale of two housing markets in the Toronto area as Canada’s biggest city gears up for the crucial spring selling season: sales of big detached homes are slow, while condo deals are booming.

On one side are people like Karen Berends, who put her $1,498,888 house back on the market in nearby Oakville this month after two failed attempts to sell in the past year. She reduced her asking price by about $51,000, but still there are no takers, and she’s kicking herself for not cashing out last spring when the market was in a frenzy.

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“We could’ve walked away with a really good amount of money in our bank account if we had taken the money last year, but our head wasn’t in it at that point,” Berends said in a phone interview. “It’s been a complete 360 this time around — it’s absolutely dead.”

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Then there’s Beth O’Donoghue, a sales representative at Brad J. Lamb Realty Inc., who says the market is as hot as it’s ever been. Her clients recently lost out in three separate condo bidding wars in a week, including one with 11 offers. That’s convinced O’Donoghue, who’s invested in four new condos herself in the city in the past four years, to hold onto her assets for now.