Montreal Real Estate Information
Montreal real estate: As Canada's second-largest city,
Montreal has a vibrant nightlife, love of sports, world-class museums,
orchestras, shopping and year-round festivals. Montreal, like some other
large cities, is a city of neighbourhoods. All these small villages
had their own history, architectural style, etc. Some of those old neighbourhoods
have disappeared or changed completely but most retained their personality.
Although you'll find Parisian charm - the French language, fine restaurants,
historic buildings, lively streets and sidewalk cafes - you'll also
find a bilingual, bicultural city. Montreal has a high appreciation
for the arts, seen in its many museums: Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of
Archaeology and History, Centre d'Histoire de Montreal; and in the downtown
area, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux-Arts), the McCord
Museum of Canadian History and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Downtown Montreal (Centre-Ville)
This area contributes the most striking elements of the
dramatic Montréal skyline and contains the main railroad station,
as well as most of the city's luxury and first-class hotels, principal
museums, corporate headquarters, and largest department stores. Loosely
bounded by rue Sherbrooke to the north, boulevard René-Lévesque
to the south, boulevard St-Laurent to the east, and rue Drummond to
the west, downtown Montréal incorporates the neighbourhood formerly
known as "The Golden Square Mile," an Anglophone district
once characterized by dozens of mansions erected by the wealthy Scottish
and English merchants and industrialists who dominated the city's politics
and social life well into this century. Many of those stately homes
were torn down when skyscrapers began to rise here after World War II,
but some remain, often converted to institutional use. At the northern
edge of the downtown area is the urban campus of prestigious McGill
University, which retains its Anglophone identity.
It can be divided into many sections :
the shopping district (Ste-Catherine), the business district and the
hotel section (located alongside René-Levesque blvd. between
du Parc Ave./Bleury street to the east and Guy street to the west),
the museum district, the Golden square mile and McGill, Mont-Royal park
and the "stairs" district, east downtown (Place-des-Arts and
govt. buildings), the fur district, and the Shaughnessy village.
Westmount Real Estate
Westmount, Montreal: Westmount is an upper class English
speaking municipality on the island of Montreal and just south-west
of the Mount-Royal. It is surrounded by the city of Montreal with the
downtown to the east, the St-Henri district to the south and the Notre-Dame-de-Grace
district to the west. Its main attractions are green spaces and it is
known for having Montreal's beautiful and rich homes and mansions. Most
things in Outremont are more expensive than in Montreal, that includes
restaurants, stores and rent. The most interesting houses are on the
side of the Mont Royal. Housing in Westmount includes semi-detached
houses and luxury detached houses. If you are looking for mansions in
Montreal, Westmount is the place to find them.
St-Denis real estate
Rue St-Denis, from rue Ste-Catherine Est to avenue du
Mont-Royal, is the thumping central artery of Francophone Montréal,
running from the Latin Quarter downtown and continuing north into the
Plateau Mont-Royal district. Thick with cafes, bistros, offbeat shops,
and lively nightspots, it is to Montréal what boulevard St-Germain
is to Paris, and indeed, once you're here, it isn't difficult to imagine
yourself transported to the Left Bank. At the southern end of St-Denis,
near the concrete campus of the Université du Québec à
Montréal (UQAM), the avenue is decidedly student-oriented, with
indie rock cranked up in the inexpensive bars and clubs, and kids in
jeans and leather swapping philosophical insights and telephone numbers.
Farther north, above Sherbrooke, a raffish quality persists along the
facing rows of three- and four-story row houses, but the average age
of residents and visitors nudges past 30. Prices are higher, too, and
some of the city's better restaurants are located here. This is a district
for taking the pulse of Francophone life, not for absorbing art and
culture of the refined sort, for there are no museums or important galleries
on St-Denis, nor is most of the architecture notable. But, then, that
relieves visitors of the chore of obligatory sightseeing and allows
them to take in the passing scene-just as the locals do-over bowls of
café au lait at any of the numerous terraces that line the avenue.
Notre-Dame-de-Grace real estate
Notre-Dame-de-Grace was, and still is in some parts, a
middle-upper class neighbourhood west of the Mont-Royal. It was known
at first for the Decarie farms whose melons were well known throughout
North America. Recently, it has the location for a upscale residential
development changed the nature of the district.