The Unionville Bandshell
If you had tried to stroll Main Street Unionville on a Saturday last summer, you'd have been dodging fencing, gravel and construction hoarding. The village spent the better part of two years dug up while the street was rebuilt, and I'll admit that even I - and I've watched this community through every kind of change since the 1980s - wondered how the shops and restaurants would weather it.
This spring we got our answer. On May 31, the city officially reopened Main Street after a $14.8 million restoration, funded jointly by Markham and the federal government, that renewed the street's infrastructure and streetscape while protecting the heritage character that makes the village what it is (source: City of Markham; CBC News, May 31, 2026). Mayor Frank Scarpitti put it well at the reopening: this street carries nearly 200 years of history, and the point of the investment was to celebrate that history, not pave over it. Walk it today and you can feel the difference underfoot - the street is whole again, the patios are full, and the businesses that held on through construction are finally being rewarded.
This coming weekend is the perfect excuse to go see for yourself. The Markham Jazz Festival returns August 22 and 23 for its 29th year, filling the village with live music from Main Street down to the Varley Art Gallery (source: markhamjazzfestival.com). If you've never spent a festival evening in Unionville, with music drifting past century-old storefronts and the crowds wandering up from Toogood Pond, it's the best introduction to this neighbourhood I know. Come early, because parking fills quickly, and the walk in from the surrounding streets is honestly part of the charm.
Now let me put my broker hat on, because there's a real estate story here that outlasts the weekend.
We've been selling homes in and around Unionville since 1986, and one lesson has held through every market: public investment in a neighbourhood's bones shows up in its property values, slowly and then all at once. A street that has just had its infrastructure renewed for the next generation is a street whose biggest capital questions are answered for decades to come. Buyers rarely price that in consciously, but they feel it the moment they walk the village, and over the years I've watched that feeling translate into steady demand for every pocket within walking distance: the heritage homes off Main Street itself, the mature crescents around Toogood Pond, and the family streets that feed into the village from Carlton Road and Kennedy.
For sellers in the village, the timing is worth understanding. Homes near Main Street trade rarely - families arrive and stay for decades, which is the best endorsement a neighbourhood can get, but it also means each listing is its own event with little direct competition. With the construction finally behind us and the street showing at its absolute best, this fall is as strong a backdrop for an Unionville listing as I've seen in years, provided the price reflects today's market rather than a 2022 memory.
For buyers, my advice is to be patient and be ready at the same time. The right house near the village doesn't come along on your schedule, and when it does, you'll be competing with people who have waited just as long as you have. Knowing your numbers before that day - what you can carry, what the street's recent sales actually say - is what turns a near miss into a new address.
Either way, start with a walk. Come for the jazz on Saturday, stay for dinner on a patio, and see what $14.8 million and 200 years of history look like together. And if the village gets under your skin the way it got under mine all those decades ago, you know where to find me.
Brad
Main Street Unionville, July 2026