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Area · City of Sainte-Thérèse, Basses-Laurentides

Sainte-Thérèse

A real village with its own shops, a CEGEP that trains actors and musicians, and a train that leaves right from the heart of the city. Here's my top 10, neighbour style, not brochure style.

Let's talk about this area

Sainte-Thérèse is the heart of the Basses-Laurentides. A small city of 9.4 square kilometres, about 27,000 people, wedged between Blainville, Rosemère, Boisbriand and Mirabel, with Highway 15 and the 640 crossing right through it. From Verdun, I take the Médéric-Martin bridge north and I'm there in about thirty minutes outside rush hour.

What strikes you the first time is that there's a real downtown, not just a commercial boulevard. The locals call it "le Village," and that's exactly what it is: a main street lined with 19th century houses, terraces, a stone church and a CEGEP five minutes on foot. The city's official motto is "Ville d'art, de culture et de savoir," a city of art, culture and knowledge. For once, a motto that actually describes what you see.

I put this top 10 together for a simple reason: when you buy or sell, you're not just shopping for a property, you're shopping for a way of 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-Thérèse beat.

Ten reasons buyers fall for this city, and why the ones who live here never leave.

01 Le clocher de l'église Sainte-Thérèse-d'Avila, au cœur du Village de Sainte-Thérèse
The icon

The Village and its stone church

Downtown is organized around the crossing of rue Blainville and rue Turgeon, with the église Sainte-Thérèse-d'Avila as its landmark. Built between 1885 and 1887, it was designated a historic monument by the city in 1987 and has housed a 3,000-pipe organ since 1888, an instrument unique in the region. Around it, you walk from a café to a shop without getting back in the car, which stays rare in the north suburbs.

Ask me about this: how far the perimeter really extends where you can do everything on foot. It's smaller than people think, and it changes everything at resale.
02 La salle du Théâtre Lionel-Groulx, à Sainte-Thérèse
Culture

Odyscène, two venues in the same city

The regional presenter Odyscène programs the Théâtre Lionel-Groulx and its 811 seats, plus the Cabaret BMO Sainte-Thérèse, opened in 2016 right downtown, which hosts about 150 shows a year in cabaret format. Together, that adds up to nearly 300 performances and more than 120,000 spectators every year. A lot of cities three times the size don't have that.

Ask me about this: which streets are within walking distance of both venues. For a buyer who goes out often, that's a criterion they hadn't even thought to name.
03 Un spectacle sur scène à Sainte-Thérèse
The event

The Santa Teresa Festival

Since 2017, an alternative music festival has taken over the streets of the Village in early May. In 2026, it ran from May 8 to 10, with indoor, outdoor and pop-up stages scattered across downtown, and a good chunk of the lineup offered for free. It's the weekend the whole city transforms, and Montrealers drive up here instead of the other way around.

Ask me about this: what it's like to live three streets from the stages during that weekend. Some people love it and some really don't, and it's worth knowing before you buy.
04 L'ancien séminaire de Sainte-Thérèse, aujourd'hui le Collège Lionel-Groulx
Knowledge

Collège Lionel-Groulx and its old seminary

The CEGEP occupies the former Séminaire de Sainte-Thérèse, an imposing 1883 stone building founded by parish priest Charles-Joseph Ducharme. It became a CEGEP in 1967 and is known across Quebec for its theatre and music programs. The result: a student population that keeps the Village lively all year, cafés that stay busy on weekdays, and steady rental demand.

Ask me about this: how the CEGEP shapes the plex market in the area. It's one of the first things I check when an investor asks me about Sainte-Thérèse.
05 Un train de banlieue à la gare de Sainte-Thérèse
Transit

The station, at the end of rue de la Gare

The Sainte-Thérèse station sits on exo line 12, the Saint-Jérôme line, and the ride to the Lucien-L'Allier station downtown takes about an hour. There are 680 park-and-ride spaces and a 76-spot bike station open around the clock. The railway arrived here in 1876 and turned the city into one of Quebec's major rail hubs. A hundred and fifty years later, it's still in service.

Ask me about this: which areas let you walk to the station instead of parking there. On a storm morning, the difference is huge.
06 Des autobus d'exo au terminus de la gare de Sainte-Thérèse, dont la ligne vers le métro Montmorency
Access

The 15, the 640 and the metro in Laval

Few cities have two highways crossing right through them: the 15 toward Montreal or the Laurentians, the 640 to cross the north crown from east to west. Route 117 also runs through here. And for anyone who'd rather not drive, exo Laurentides buses connect the station to the Montmorency terminus, and from there to the orange metro line. Two completely different ways to get downtown, that's a suburban luxury.

Ask me about this: ask me how long it really takes to your workplace, at the hours you actually travel. We work out the math together before you start shopping.
07 La petite maison jaune, ou maison Joseph-Laliberté, déplacée en 2022 rue Main à Sainte-Thérèse
Heritage

Sixteen designated sites, and one relocated house

The city protects sixteen heritage sites: the early 19th century maison Lachaîne, which once served as city hall, the 1813 Castel Morris, the 1858 Protestant church, the former 1877 municipal building, the 1912 Hôtel Blainville with its tin cornice, the 1911 Lesage piano factory, the old Swiss chalet style train station. The little yellow house in the photo, meanwhile, was moved in 2022 rather than torn down. That tells you the tone of the place.

Ask me about this: what heritage status actually means when you want to renovate. Better to know before you make an offer.
08
The neighbourhoods

The Cent maisons neighbourhood

In 1942, the federal Wartime Housing Limited expropriated seven streets to house workers from the war's munitions factories. A hundred houses were planned, ninety-nine were built. Avenue Bertrand crosses rues De Manthet, Chatelier, Lamarque, Lacroix, Hertel and Monk, and the whole thing still forms a group you can spot at a glance today. Small houses, big lots, plenty of additions over the years.

Ask me about this: what you find behind the facade of a renovated wartime house. I've learned to spot the good additions from the bad ones.
09
Outdoors

Eighteen kilometres of bike paths

The city has eighteen kilometres of bike paths, including a stretch of the Route verte, and parks that hold their own: parc Ducharme with its skate plaza, parc Richelieu with beach volleyball, Jardin des Sources with its 1.7 km trail. Sainte-Thérèse has no waterfront of its own, the rivière Mascouche only skirts its southern edge, but the rivière des Mille Îles is a few minutes away through Rosemère or Boisbriand.

Ask me about this: which areas give access to the bike network without crossing a main road. With young kids, that detail carries a lot of weight.
10
Family life

Schools from elementary right through to CEGEP

On the Centre de services scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles side, the Polyvalente Sainte-Thérèse takes in more than 1,840 high school students, and l'école du Trait-d'Union merged its two former buildings into a single new one that can hold 576 students from kindergarten through grade 6. Add the English-language Sir Wilfrid Laurier network in the neighbouring cities and the CEGEP right here: a kid can go through their entire schooling without ever changing cities.

Ask me about this: which school serves the address you're interested in. Catchment areas change, and it's not always the one you'd guess from the window.
Let's talk

Thinking about buying or selling in Sainte-Thérèse? Let's start with a conversation.

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.

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