Note
The endpoints rotated, the spans did not
Six weeks after we published the catchment-span story on August 28, four of the twelve schools that marked the top or bottom of a city's span have been replaced by a different school — but no city's span changed by more than two multiples, and the median span across the six cities barely moved at all.
What moved
On August 28 we measured six Ontario cities' catchment spans — the ratio of the highest school-boundary median to the lowest. On October 13 we revisited every figure. Four of the six cities now show a different school at the top or the bottom of their span, but the span itself — how far apart the cheapest and dearest catchment markets sit — changed modestly in every case.
- Toronto's span widened from 13.2× to 13.6×. The low endpoint changed from St. Charles Garnier Catholic School to Brookview Middle School; Denlow Public School held at the top.
- Mississauga narrowed from 7.8× to 5.7×. The high endpoint changed from Kenollie Public School to Green Glade Senior Public School — still overwhelmingly detached, but at a lower median.
- Oakville narrowed from 6.3× to 5.5×. The high endpoint changed from St. Vincent Catholic Elementary to New Central Public School.
- Vaughan widened from 5.0× to 5.7×. Both endpoints held: Maple Creek Public School at the bottom, Kleinburg Public School at the top.
- Hamilton stayed at 4.6×. Central Junior Public School and Balaclava Public School remained at the bottom and top.
- Burlington widened from 4.3× to 5.3×. The low endpoint changed from Dr. Charles Best Public School to Orchard Park Public School.
What it means
The rotation confirms exactly what the original story argued: the span is a property-mix fact, not a school fact. When a handful of condo listings expire or a cluster of detached homes enters the market inside a small boundary, the school at the endpoint changes — but the distance between a city's cheapest and dearest catchment markets does not collapse. A city-wide median still averages over boundary markets that sit multiples apart.
The two cities where the span moved most — Mississauga narrowing from 7.8× to 5.7× and Burlington widening from 4.3× to 5.3× — both changed high or low endpoints, which means the new figure reflects a different school's inventory, not the same school's price moving. That is normal in catchments running on modest counts. The finding, as we said on publication day, is the size of the span, not the names at its ends.
We re-read the live metrics on the existing catchment-span Shortlist page on October 13, 2026. That page resolves its figures from the same getCityCatchmentLeague sweep behind every DistrictIQ school profile — active for-sale residential MLS® listings, each matched to the school's board-published attendance boundary, with a floor of 20 zoned active listings per endpoint. The published-date figures (August 28, 2026) come from the story's authored snapshot, which the page renders as drift notes when the live value diverges.
- Geography
- The same six Ontario cities in the original Shortlist
Every figure quoted above was read from a public DistrictIQ page on the date beside it, and each page states its own as-of date. Open the page to see what it reads today.
A Note is one finding, written once. Nothing on this page resolves from current inventory: every figure was read from the DistrictIQ page named beside it, on the date given there, and the wording was fixed on October 13, 2026. Inventory moves and these figures do not, so the live number is always the one on the linked page. Where the two disagree, trust the linked page.
Market figures are derived by DistrictIQ from active TRREB / PropTx MLS® listings and reflect list-price activity (not sold prices) as of the date shown. They are provided for general information only, are not an appraisal, financial or investment advice, and must not be relied upon for any transaction. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.