Markham

Markham calls itself Canada's High Tech Capital and has the corporate addresses to back it. IBM, Motorola, and dozens of major tech firms operate here. But the part of Markham that draws people is not the office parks on Highway 7. It is Main Street Unionville. Settled in 1794, the street has barely changed in 230 years. The Stiver Mill still stands where the Stiver family ran grain operations since the 1790s. The Varley Art Gallery sits two blocks away. The Unionville Festival fills the street every June with 35,000 people. In a city of 340,000 mostly new subdivisions, this one mile of preserved 19th-century village is the anchor the whole community circles back to.

Markham is also one of the most diverse cities in Canada. Nearly 60 percent of residents were born outside the country. The concentration of talent from Asia has fuelled the tech sector and created a cultural depth rarely found in suburban cities. Pacific Mall on Steeles Avenue East is the largest indoor Asian mall in North America. The Rouge National Urban Park borders the city's eastern edge with 79 square kilometres of green space from Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine. Five GO stations connect Markham to Union Station. For buyers, the math makes sense: top schools, subway-adjacent, tech employment base, and a historic village that holds its premium regardless of what the broader market does.