Is Sharon a good place to live?
For families who want quiet without feeling cut off, Sharon is one of the easiest places in East Gwillimbury to recommend. It's still a small-town, low-traffic community, but because it sits right at the south end of EG off Green Lane and Highway 404, you stay genuinely connected to Newmarket and Toronto further south. As the first town you reach off the highway, you also skip the construction and congestion that will come with driving deeper into the township. It's quieter on the construction front than Queensville, which is ramping up far more aggressively. The honest trade-off is that Sharon is still a small town: you have Vince's Market and its plaza for daily needs, and for bigger shopping the big-box plazas at Yonge Street and Green Lane, technically in East Gwillimbury despite the Newmarket reputation, are a short drive west along Green Lane, with Newmarket itself just beyond. Buyers who want a walkable, big-amenity town centre will find Sharon modest, and that's exactly what its residents like about it.
What do Sharon homes for sale cost?
Homes for sale in Sharon, Ontario cover more variety than anywhere else in East Gwillimbury. Along the Leslie Street corridor, the plan is to preserve a heritage main street: existing heritage buildings are protected, and new builds there are expected to fit that older look and architectural design of the heritage area. Step off Leslie Street and you get the usual low-rise subdivisions, plus a few higher-end estate neighbourhoods. A brand-new subdivision home in Sharon is very similar to its Queensville and Holland Landing equivalent, the main difference being that Sharon is a few minutes closer to Newmarket. On price, Sharon tends to be the priciest of EG's four main towns, not because the typical home costs much more, but because Sharon has a couple of older, established, higher-end neighbourhoods that hold their value and pull the average up. Even at the top end, Sharon stays well below what the same house would cost in Markham or Richmond Hill.
How far is Sharon from Toronto and the GO?
Of the East Gwillimbury towns, Sharon has the most straightforward commute. It sits just north of Green Lane, which has its own interchange with Highway 404 and acts as the main east-west corridor between Highways 400 and 404. From Sharon you're straight up or down the 404 to Newmarket, Richmond Hill and Markham. The East Gwillimbury GO station is just off Green Lane, between Sharon and Holland Landing, and it's effectively the end of the line, the furthest north the train runs on this side of Lake Simcoe, which makes Sharon one of the closest EG towns for public transit into Toronto. The coming Bradford Bypass will run along the north side of EG. It helps if you need to get over to Highway 400 but Holland Landing is still your best option if 400 access is a high priority.
Schools and families in Sharon
Sharon works well for families, and it has the recreation backbone for it. Sharon Public School is a newer build inside one of the town's newer developments, and because Sharon is home to East Gwillimbury's only hockey arena and main recreation centre, this is where kids from across EG come to play. As with the rest of East Gwillimbury, there's no high school in town yet, so older students bus into Newmarket. For day-to-day family life, the combination of quiet streets, the arena and recreation programs, plus a short drive to everything in Newmarket is what tends to win families over.
Thinking of moving from Markham or Richmond Hill?
The most common reaction I get from Buyers moving up from Markham or Richmond Hill is the same two-part surprise: first, looking at a map, they ask where East Gwillimbury even is; then when they drive it, they realize it's not as far as they thought. Because Sharon sits right off the 404 at the south edge of EG, it's the closest of the towns to the GTA, a straight run down the highway to Richmond Hill and Markham. The other thing they find is that they don't have to give up their old routine, with Newmarket right there for restaurants, shopping and services, so the change of pace comes without feeling isolated. What they're really buying is a quieter, more family-friendly setting for less than the same house would cost in Richmond Hill or Markham. The commute trade-off is smaller here than anywhere else in EG.
Is Sharon a good real estate investment?
Sharon, Ontario real estate has two distinct sides. The established higher-end pockets are among the most settled, sought-after streets in East Gwillimbury. Along the Leslie Street corridor, by contrast, certain properties, like in Queensville, carry medium and high-density designations, which allow for things like stacked townhomes, retirement buildings and mid-rise residential of roughly four to eight storeys. That density potential is exactly what tends to concentrate new growth over time, and it's something Mount Albert and the rural areas simply don't have. The honest long view is that Queensville will eventually outgrow Sharon as EG's main commercial and shopping hub, but that's years out. Today, Sharon is the established centre, and like the rest of EG its next wave of growth is gated by the regional wastewater servicing that has to be completed before new major developments proceed. The proposed hospital nearby in Queensville and the Bradford Bypass will support employment and growth across all of EG, Sharon included. It helps to know where Sharon sits in the bigger plan. The Town's updated Official Plan concentrates EG's new density along two spines, the Leslie Street and Highway 404 corridor and the Green Lane corridor, and Sharon touches both. The medium and high-density designations on Leslie Street are one half of that. The other is the Green Lane corridor just to the south, anchored by the East Gwillimbury GO station and planned for mid-rise, transit-oriented housing. Being one of the few EG communities that sits on this growth structure from two sides is a real part of Sharon's long-term story.
Living in Sharon: local character
Sharon wears its history more openly than the other EG towns. Talk to anyone who has been here a while and the stories are about what used to be where: farm fields that became subdivisions, the old shops that anchored a corner years ago. Vince's Market is the local staple, it's been in Sharon for decades and recently renovated and expanded. The town's identity is being formalized through the heritage corridor planned along Leslie Street, which is meant to keep that older main-street feel even as new building happens. Sharon is also associated with the Sharon Temple, the heritage landmark the area is known for. The local read on Sharon is that it's East Gwillimbury's capital: the municipal offices, the arena, and the heritage neighbourhoods give it a settled, civic feel.