For most young families, proximity to a good school is a top priority when choosing a home, and a new report shows just how much Torontonians are willing to pay.
Real estate platform and brokerage Wahi analyzed median home prices in the third quarter of this year in neighbourhoods with elementary schools that had achieved a score of nine or higher out of 10 in the most recent annual Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools created by Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute.
About 60 public, Catholic and private elementary schools out of nearly 1,100 across the Greater Toronto Area (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.
The most affordable option was the Church-Yonge Corridor, where homes near St. Michael’s Choir School (rated 10/10) had a median price of $570,000, largely due to the prevalence of condos.
At the other end of the price range, the upscale midtown neighbourhood of Moore Park, home to two top schools, saw median home prices of $3.2 million.
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 the third quarter of 2025.
“It’s difficult to say exactly how much school zones affect local home prices in the GTA, since so many factors are at play,” said 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 added.
“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,” he said.
The rankings are based on assessments from the Ontario provincial Crown agency Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). The average score for all schools is six.
The top-rated Toronto elementary schools and the cost to live near them.
Proceed with caution
McLaughlin said parents should be mindful of an important caveat if schools are a major decision-maker when buying a home.
“Living close to a top-rated school doesn’t guarantee your child can enrol,” he said. “Increased density and population growth mean that in some neighbourhoods, newcomers will find local schools are already at capacity.”
