Here’s How Much It Costs to Buy a Home Near the Greater Toronto Area’s Top Elementary Schools

The latest analysis from Wahi compares home prices across about 60 Greater Toronto Area neighbourhoods with some of the province’s top-ranked elementary schools.

By Josh Sherman | 3 minute read

Among GTA neighbourhoods with top-rated schools, the median price of a home is typically more than $1 million, though there are notable exceptions.

When deciding where to put down roots, picking a neighbourhood with a good school is a no-brainer for many young families.

To parents, a child’s education is a common top priority. But there’s an added perk to having an address near a high-scoring school. “It’s accepted real estate wisdom that close proximity to a school boosts property values in Canada — and academic research supports the claim,” notes Ryan McLaughlin, an economist at Wahi, a leading Canadian real estate platform and brokerage.

But what does it cost to live near some of the Greater Toronto Area’s top-rated schools? The latest analysis from Wahi sought to answer this question. To do so, Wahi analyzed median home prices in the third quarter of this year in neighbourhoods with elementary schools that had achieved a score of 9.0 or higher out of 10 in the most recent annual Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools. The rankings, created by Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute, are based on Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) assessments. And the average score for all schools is 6.0.

About 60 public, Catholic and private elementary schools out of nearly 1,100 across the GTA achieved a grade of at least 9.0, in the 2022-2023 school year. In the neighbourhoods in which these schools are located, Wahi found that home prices can vary significantly. “It’s difficult to say exactly how much school zones affect local home prices in the GTA, since so many factors are at play,” explains Wahi Economist Ryan McLaughlin. From current market conditions, to the types of homes available in a neighbourhood, local property can fluctuate considerably from place to place, he continues. “However, we did observe that in many neighbourhoods with a top school, the median home price was well above the GTA-wide median home price,” McLaughlin adds.

The most affordable neighbourhood with a top-ranked school was the Church-Yonge Corridor, a downtown community where you’ll find St. Michael’s Choir, a school with a perfect rating. Here, the median price of a home was $570,000, well below the GTA-wide median. This is an example of how the types of dwellings in a neighbourhood can affect pricing. Condos, which typically have lower prices than single-family homes, are the dominant form of housing along the Church-Yonge Corridor.

In contrast to the  Church-Yonge Corridor, the priciest neighbourhood with a top school in the GTA was Moore Park, an affluent part of midtown Toronto with a median home price of $3,200,000. Moore Park is known for luxury single-family dwellings and is actually home to two top schools: Whitney Junior Public School and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Although there were sizable gaps in pricing in certain neighbourhoods, of the 63 with top schools, 41 had a median price of at least $1 million. For comparison, the GTA-wide median price of a home was $905,000 in Q3 2025.

While Wahi’s latest analysis should help homebuyers make more informed decisions, McLaughlin notes an important caveat. “Living close to a top-rated school doesn’t guarantee your child can enrol,” the Wahi economist explains. “Increased density and population growth mean that in some neighbourhoods, newcomers will find local schools are already at capacity.”

McLaughlin also cautions that school ratings are only one data point to for parents to consider. A top-ranked school might not be the right fit if it doesn’t offer the desired programming, for instance. “Parents should continue do their own research to learn more before making a decision.”