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Area · Sainte-Julie, South Shore of Montreal

Sainte-Julie

Named Quebec's happiest city four times, with a national park at the end of the trail and the REM just one bus away. Here's my top 10, neighbour's version, not brochure version.

Let's talk about this area

Sainte-Julie is the suburb that kept its village side: an old core around the 1851 church, streets full of families at the foot of Mont Saint-Bruno, and two highways that drop you in Montreal or the rest of the South Shore without a detour. The Indice relatif de bonheur has named it Quebec's happiest city four times, and when you walk around, you understand why the Julievillois don't make a big deal of it: to them, it's just normal life. My home base is in Verdun, but I work with buyers and sellers on both sides of the river, whether it's a family home or a commercial space.

I put together this top 10 for a simple reason: when you buy or sell, you're not just shopping for a property, you're shopping for a neighbourhood life. Each point comes with an opening to talk. Use it.

Maxime Laforest, residential and commercial real estate broker · Équipe Loiselle, RE/MAX Dynamique

The area's top 10

What makes the heart of Sainte-Julie beat.

Ten reasons buyers fall for the town, and why the people who live here never leave.

01 Aerial view of Sainte-Julie, surrounded by fields, with Mont Saint-Bruno in the background
The icon

A town in the countryside, at the foot of Mont Saint-Bruno

From the air, Sainte-Julie looks like an island of neighbourhoods set in the middle of farmland, backed up against the north slope of Mont Saint-Bruno. Born in 1851 around its parish, it became a city in 1971, and today it's home to about thirty thousand Julievillois, roughly 25 kilometres from downtown Montreal. The nickname the town gave itself says it all: the town in the country.

Ask me about it: ask me which areas make the most of the mountain view. That detail doesn't show up on a listing sheet, but it matters when choosing your street.
02 Snowy trail leading from the Sainte-Julie side toward Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park
Nature

Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park at the end of the trail

Few suburbs can say they border a national park. On the Sainte-Julie side, a pedestrian access point runs from around parc Edmour-J.-Harvey to the Sépaq trails, and the park's main entrance is a few minutes away by car. Lakes, maple groves, the Vieux-Moulin, an orchard: you walk it in summer, ski it in winter, and come home for supper.

Ask me about it: ask me which streets get you to the mountain on foot. The radius is smaller than you'd think, and the properties in it rarely come up for sale.
03 Intersection of rue Principale and rue Saint-Joseph, in Sainte-Julie's Vieux-Village
Heritage

The Vieux-Village and its rue Principale

The historic core stretches along rue Principale and montée Sainte-Julie: the church, the presbytery, the old village hotel, and houses that mostly date from the 1850s and 1860s. A heritage trail of about 26 panels tells the story of each building, and a public square with a self-serve piano livens up the boulevard Saint-Joseph corner in summer.

Ask me about it: ask me what the Vieux-Village's character actually does for a property's value. Addresses in this area have their own market.
04 Entrance to parc Edmour-J.-Harvey in Sainte-Julie, with its multi-use trail
Family life

About thirty parks, including parc Edmour-J.-Harvey

The town has more than 30 municipal parks, and parc Edmour-J.-Harvey is the flagship: about 18 hectares at the foot of the mountain, with tennis and pickleball courts, trails, cross-country skiing and skating in winter. A new park chalet is announced for fall 2026. Add the arboretum Pierre-Steben and you understand why so many strollers roll through here.

Ask me about it: ask me which neighbourhood walks to which park. It's often the first criteria for young families, even before the number of bedrooms.
05 École secondaire du Grand-Coteau, seen from boulevard N.-P.-Lapierre in Sainte-Julie
Schools

Neighbourhood schools up to Grand-Coteau

Sainte-Julie falls under the Centre de services scolaire des Patriotes, with several elementary schools spread across the neighbourhoods and école secondaire du Grand-Coteau on rue Borduas. The school takes the first three years of high school, and the town is actively pushing to have grades four and five offered there too. A file worth watching for a lot of parents.

Ask me about it: ask me how to check an address's school catchment area before making an offer. Two neighbouring streets can lead to two different schools.
06 exo park-and-ride along Highway 20, in Sainte-Julie
Transportation

The REM, just one bus away

No train station in Sainte-Julie, but a well-connected exo bus network: since 2023, the 600 line has linked the town to the Brossard terminus, where the REM runs to gare Centrale, and the service has been boosted with dozens more departures a day. Other lines head to the Longueuil terminus and the metro. On the driving side, highways 20 and 30 cross right at the edge of town, and the end of the major rebuild of the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel, expected by late 2026, will give commuters some breathing room.

Ask me about it: ask me the real door-to-door time to your workplace depending on the neighbourhood. That's the calculation that decides a lot of purchases on the South Shore.
07 Bike path along boulevard N.-P.-Lapierre in Sainte-Julie
Outdoors

Nearly 40 kilometres of bike paths

The bike and pedestrian network crosses the town from end to end: neighbourhoods, parks, and the commercial zone all connect by bike, with even a link that crosses over Highway 20. A lot of kids make their way to school on two wheels, and that's exactly the kind of detail that makes visitors say the town was designed for everyday life.

Ask me about it: ask me which streets give direct access to the network without touching the main boulevards. At resale, it matters more than you'd think.
08 Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval, Sainte-Julie's service artery, looking south
Shops and services

Fer-à-Cheval and Armand-Frappier, everything five minutes away

Commercial life is concentrated along chemin du Fer-à-Cheval and boulevard Armand-Frappier, on both sides of Highway 20: grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, les Halles du Domaine, la Place Nobel. A local microbrewery, La Broue Shop, rounds out the picture. People don't come to Sainte-Julie to stroll a trendy strip; they come because everything gets done in a few minutes, without any parking stress.

Ask me about it: ask me too what's happening on the industrial park side south of the highway. That's my other hat as a broker, the commercial side.
09
The unexpected

Hydro-Québec's Électrium

A real local curiosity: Hydro-Québec's electricity interpretation centre is located in Sainte-Julie, on rue Michael-Faraday, a wink you couldn't make up. Visits are free, by reservation, and you'll come face to face with a real live electric eel as well as a Van de Graaff generator that'll make your hair stand on end. The perfect family outing for a grey Sunday.

Ask me about it: ask me for my list of things to do in the area before you buy. Spending a Saturday in a town is still the best way to know if you'll like living there.
10 The District Sainte-Julie development, new residential buildings near Highway 20
Tomorrow

A town of houses giving itself new options

Sainte-Julie was built on single-family homes, and that's still its DNA. But the offering is diversifying: District Sainte-Julie lines up its contemporary buildings on the site of a former supermarket, and the Destination Sainte-Julie project, at the corner of boulevard Armand-Frappier and rue de Murano, calls for about 263 units, roughly forty of them affordable. The town is also working on an indoor refrigerated skating rink. All of it lets young buyers and local retirees alike stay in their town.

Ask me about it: ask me what these projects mean for demand in the established neighbourhoods. When a town finally offers condos, the whole local market starts moving.
Let's talk

Thinking of buying or selling in Sainte-Julie? Let's start talking.

A free evaluation of your property, a picture of the local market, or simply answers to your questions. No strings attached, and a straight answer.

Start my real estate project

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