Danforth Village/Upper Beaches

Around the Neighbourhood

Cultural landmarks: the Danforth’s Greektown anchors the west side, the Gerrard India Bazaar (Little India) brings the colour and food just south, and the historic Fox Theatre on Queen East, one of the oldest continuously running cinemas in Canada, sits a short walk down toward the Beaches.

Hot local spots: the Danforth’s long-running Greek tavernas handle dinner and late-night gyros, Kingston Road Village adds a quieter strip of cafes and shops, and the Porch Light on Danforth East is a reliable neighbourhood cafe and kitchen.

Parks & green space: the Glen Stewart Ravine is the local gem, a pocket of old Carolinian forest and boardwalk trail above the Upper Beach, with Stephenson Park and the Ashbridges Bay beachfront both close by.

Your Typical Neighbour

For census purposes this area falls largely within the City’s East End-Danforth neighbourhood, and the household mix tells the story: about 40% of households are families with kids, well above the city average, alongside a solid share of people living alone (around 35%). It’s a diverse, established area, with residents tracing roots to some 152 ethnic origins and a high share of first- and second-generation immigrants. Incomes sit in the broad middle, more attainable than neighbouring Riverdale or the Beaches, which is exactly why younger professional families keep moving in for their first house.

Source: City of Toronto Neighbourhood Profile, East End-Danforth, 2021 Census 

What We Love

The combination of family streets and serious transit. You’re a short walk from both a subway station and a GO train, the lake and the ravine are close, and the Danforth, Little India and the Beaches are all within reach without a car. The houses tend to come with the porch space people actually use, and you get most of the east-end lifestyle for less than the postcodes next door. (Trivia for the dinner party: both Rush and the Barenaked Ladies have name-checked the Danforth in songs.)

What We Don’t Love

The borders are all magnets in summer. The Beaches and the Danforth pull heavy crowds once the weather turns, and festival and beach season can turn a quick trip into a slow one. The value gap with Riverdale and the Beaches has also narrowed a lot, so the days of obvious bargains are mostly behind us. And yes, the raccoons are committed locals too.

Real Estate

The range here is wide, which is the point. North of the Danforth you’ll mostly find semis, many with the classic east-end porch. South of the Danforth opens up into a mix of Victorian semis, bungalows, townhomes and boutique apartment buildings that include some of the more affordable purchase prices left in the old city. The homes around Kingston Road and farther north are generally more attainable than their Beaches counterparts to the south, and houses tend to shrink and prices ease as you move up the hill. Compared with Riverdale, the Beaches and Leslieville, this is the value play of the east end. New to all this? Start with our First-Time Buyer guide.

(Current prices and days on market appear in the live statistics block below, updated quarterly.)

Transit

Hard to beat for the east end. Main Street station on the Bloor-Danforth subway and the Danforth GO station sit together at Main and Danforth, giving you two fast routes downtown. The Gerrard streetcar and the Coxwell, Woodbine and Main buses cover local trips, and drivers reach the DVP, Gardiner and Lakeshore without much fuss. The one caveat is summer congestion when the Beaches and Danforth fill up.

Schools

There are a healthy number of schools in the area, both in the public and separate boards. Growing family-oriented traffic is likely to cause growth as well.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

É Élém La Mosaïque
É Élém Jeanne-Lajoie
Cosburn Middle School
D A Morrison Middle School
Diefenbaker Elementary School
William Burgess Elementary School
Westwood Middle School
Parkside Elementary School
Chester Elementary School
R. H. McGregor Elementary School

SENIOR SCHOOLS

Collège français secondaire
East York Collegiate Institute

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

ÉÉC Georges-Étienne-Cartier
Canadian Martyrs Catholic School
ÉÉC du Bon-Berger
ÉSC Saint-Frère-André
Holy Cross Catholic School
St. Brigid Catholic School

For school rankings and Fraser Institute scores, see our interactive Toronto school map.