What does it mean that Harrison was built during a recession?
In 2007 and 2008, North America went into a housing crisis. In Canada the effect was shorter and shallower than in the United States, and locally it lasted around 18 months. But Harrison was in the middle of being built when it hit, and Mattamy pivoted fast.
The response was the Spirit line: homes with fewer frills, fewer bells and whistles, more basic floor plans, and smaller lots. Strip out cost, bring the price down, keep selling. It worked, and a section of Harrison is the physical result of that decision.
Here is why that matters to you today. Those homes are not lesser homes, and they have not aged badly. What they are is a genuine entry point on Milton's west side, in a neighbourhood that also contains far more expensive product a few streets over. The specification range inside Harrison is wider than buyers expect from a single neighbourhood built in a single window, and price per square foot alone will mislead you here more than almost anywhere else in town. We track the spread in
our monthly Milton market reports.
When we walk buyers through Harrison, this is the first thing we explain, because two homes that look comparable on paper may have come from opposite sides of a builder's emergency pricing decision.
What is it like to live beside a velodrome?
The Mattamy National Cycling Centre sits at 2015 Pan Am Boulevard, inside Harrison, and there is nothing else like it in the country.
It is a 250 metre timber track, built for the 2015 Pan American Games, and it was the first UCI regulated class 1 indoor velodrome in Canada and one of only two in North America meeting top international standards. After the Games it became the home of Cycling Canada's national track programme. It is not a museum piece: it runs public ride sessions, and it also carries a fitness studio, a walking track, and a cafe, so residents who have never touched a track bike still use the building.
For most Harrison residents it is a good neighbour and an unusual amenity, and anyone curious about riding it can start with
our full guide to riding the Milton velodrome. For a specific group of people it is the entire reason they live here, which is the next section.
Who buys a house because of a bike track?
People whose family life is organized around the track, and there are more of them than you would guess.
We have worked with buyers who have a family member on the Canadian national cycling team. The number of hours that involves at the velodrome is not comparable to a normal sport commitment. It is closer to a job with a training schedule attached, and every one of those hours has a drive on either side of it unless you fix the geography.
For that household, proximity to the Mattamy National Cycling Centre was not a nice feature on a list. It was the deciding factor, ahead of the house itself. Harrison is one of a very small number of addresses in Canada that can solve that problem, and when a family in that situation calls us, the search is effectively over before it starts. You can read more of those moves in
what our clients say.
What do Harrison streets look like?
Different from the rest of Milton, and deliberately so.
Hawthorne Village on the Escarpment was built to new urbanist principles: tighter streetscapes,
laneway townhomes with rear garages, and street frontages designed to face the street rather than the driveway. Bike lanes were designed in rather than added later, which in a neighbourhood with a velodrome in the middle of it is not a coincidence.
Harrison is predominantly Mattamy, with a few other builders in the mix. That is a real difference from Scott immediately north, where a variety of builders worked side by side. The result is that Harrison reads as more consistent, and Scott reads as more varied. The range inside that consistency still runs wide, from the laneway towns up to
the larger detached homes a few streets over.
And then the views. Many Harrison streets look straight at the Niagara Escarpment, unobstructed and protected. Protected is the operative word: that is not a view a future development can take away from you, which is a rarer thing to be able to say than most listings imply.
What are the honest negatives in Harrison?
Two, and we would rather you heard both from us.
The freight line
The CN Halton Subdivision runs along the eastern boundary of Harrison and Scott. It is a freight corridor, and depending where a home sits, you hear it. It is the single detail most likely to catch a buyer off guard, and it is a deciding factor for some people. Visit any home near the corridor at more than one time of day, ideally in the evening, before you commit. It is the same kind of on the ground check we build into
our buyer's guide. Plenty of people stop noticing it within a month. Some never do, and only you know which one you are.
The maintenance cycle that has not arrived yet
Harrison homes date from roughly 2008 to 2015, which puts roofs, windows, and furnaces on the horizon rather than at the door. You are not widely seeing replacement yet. You will. Because the neighbourhood was built in a narrow window, it will arrive across a lot of homes at close to the same time, so ask about the age of the mechanicals rather than assuming a 15 year old house is a new one. Finished basements, by contrast, are now common, which does change what you are comparing when you tour.
Our seller's guide goes through which of those projects actually returns at resale.
How is the commute from Harrison?
Transformed, and for the same reason as Scott.
Highway 401 is roughly 8 to 10 minutes via Tremaine Road north to the interchange, which is the fastest highway access west Milton has ever had, with Louis St. Laurent to James Snow Parkway as the eastern alternate. Oakville is roughly 20 to 28 minutes via Bronte Road or Tremaine south.
Mississauga is roughly 30 to 40 minutes via the 401 or 407. Downtown Toronto is roughly 50 to 58 minutes, and the Milton GO Station is about an 11 to 14 minute drive with the train to Union running about an hour. Commute times are off peak estimates and do not account for traffic.
The short version: if you drive west, Harrison is now one of the best positions in town. If you drive east every morning, the east side neighbourhoods still beat it, and we will say so.
Which schools serve Harrison?
Both Harrison and Scott were laid out so that walking to school works, which is one of the consistent strengths of the newer west side.
- Boyne Public School (HDSB): public elementary in the neighbourhood.
- Queen of Heaven Catholic Elementary (HCDSB): in the neighbourhood on Savoline Boulevard.
- P.L. Robertson Public School (HDSB): immediately north on Scott Boulevard.
- St. Francis Xavier Catholic Secondary School (HCDSB): minutes away on Bronte Street South.
- Elsie MacGill Secondary School (HDSB): the newer southwest public secondary option.
Schools are as per zoning to your home address. Confirm the assignment for any specific address with the
Halton District School Board school finder or the
Halton Catholic District School Board school finder.
What is there to do in Harrison besides cycle?
Optimist Park on Savoline Boulevard is the neighbourhood's largest, and it is unusually well equipped: a ball diamond, a soccer field, three tennis courts, a basketball court, a cricket pitch and batting cage, a splash pad, and an accessible playground. McDougall, Speyer, and Gastle parks fill in the walkable greens.
Retail runs along the Derry Road corridor on the neighbourhood's north edge, covering groceries and daily needs, with Derry Heights Plaza and its Shoppers Drug Mart and restaurants minutes away. Beyond that, Rattlesnake Point, Kelso, and Crawford Lake conservation areas are close, along with the pick your own farms that people forget are still operating this near to town.