Living in Unionville, Markham

The short answer

Unionville is the postcard version of Markham. A preserved nineteenth century main street, a pond, mature trees and a GO station within reach of a good part of the neighbourhood. That combination is rare in the northern GTA and the market prices it accordingly.

If you want one line: Unionville is where you pay for setting and reputation, not for square footage. Buyers who want the most house per dollar almost always end up further north or east.

Where the neighbourhood actually begins and ends

People use Unionville loosely. In practice there are three distinct pockets and they behave differently.

The historic core runs along Main Street Unionville and the streets immediately around it, down to Toogood Pond. This is the part everyone means when they say Unionville. Heritage character, tight lots, very little turnover.

The mature residential belt sits north and east of the core. Mostly detached homes from the 1970s through the 1990s on generous lots, with the tree canopy that came with them. This is the volume of the market and where most family purchases happen.

The Highway 7 corridor on the south edge is newer and denser: mid-rise condos, stacked towns and newer freehold townhomes. Prices here track Downtown Markham more closely than they track the historic core, which is worth knowing before you compare two listings that share a postal code.

What homes cost

TODO: fill the price band table in this file’s frontmatter with TRREB figures for a stated month and year

The bands in the table above are the useful way to read this market. The spread between an entry condo and a Main Street heritage property in Unionville is wider than in almost any other Markham neighbourhood, so a single average price tells you very little here.

Two things move price more than anything else in Unionville. The first is lot width and mature trees. The second is walking distance to Main Street. A house four streets further out with the same floor plan trades meaningfully lower and buyers who understand that can find real value.

Schools

Unionville High School is the main YRDSB secondary option and it runs a regional arts programme that admits students by audition from across York Region. That programme is a genuine draw and it does affect demand for housing in the catchment.

Bill Crothers Secondary School, also in Unionville, is a sport focused school with its own application process rather than a residential catchment.

Elementary options include both YRDSB and YCDSB schools. Catchment boundaries are reviewed periodically and they do change, so confirm the boundary for the specific address rather than the neighbourhood. Never buy a house on the assumption that a boundary will hold.

Parks, the pond and daily life

Toogood Pond is the anchor. Trails, a boardwalk and the kind of green space people actually use on a Tuesday evening rather than only on weekends. The Rouge valley system runs nearby and connects into a broader trail network.

Main Street carries the restaurants, cafes and the Varley Art Gallery. Day to day grocery and big box shopping happens off the neighbourhood, mostly along Highway 7 and Kennedy Road.

The honest trade-off: Main Street is a destination. On festival weekends and through the summer the traffic and parking spill onto the residential streets around it. If you value absolute quiet, look at the mature belt further north rather than the core.

Transit and the commute

Unionville GO sits on the Stouffville line and runs into Union Station. For a downtown commuter this is the single strongest argument for the neighbourhood and it is why the streets within walking distance of the station hold their value.

TODO: confirm the current scheduled train time from Unionville GO to Union Station and add it to quickStats

Highway 7 carries YRT and Viva bus rapid transit across the top of the neighbourhood, which connects west toward Richmond Hill and Vaughan and east toward Cornell. Highway 407 is a short drive. Highway 404 is the usual route south.

Driving downtown in rush hour is not a serious plan. Most people who work in the core take the train.

Who Unionville suits

It suits buyers who want character and setting and who are prepared to pay for it. It suits downtown commuters who will use the GO train. It suits families who value the school reputation and the walkability of the core.

It does not suit buyers chasing maximum square footage, buyers who want a brand new build or buyers who need absolute quiet on a summer weekend. Those people are usually happier in Wismer, Greensborough or Angus Glen.