A new semi-detached home near Saint-Bruno may appeal to you, but would Sainte-Julie suit you as well as Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville? This article uses official figures to compare what living in Sainte-Julie or Saint-Bruno actually involves.

The data comes from the 2021 Census, exo timetables, the two municipalities and Centris. The goal is not to name a winner: both towns have real strengths, and the right choice depends on how you live.

Living in Sainte-Julie or Saint-Bruno: what the two towns share

As neighbours, the two municipalities share several draws:

Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park, a neighbour to both towns: run by Sépaq, it has covered 884 hectares since it was enlarged in 2013;
Ski Saint-Bruno, with 18 runs according to Tourisme Montréal, at 550 rang des Vingt-Cinq Est;
the rang des Vingt-Cinq bike link: since 2012, a bike lane has run one way along each side of the road, tying Sainte-Julie to Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville;
exo route 340 (Express Longueuil – Promenades Saint-Bruno), the one route that connects the two towns directly: it runs on weekends and statutory holidays only, with four departures each way, and takes about 15 minutes between Promenades St-Bruno and the Sainte-Julie terminus.

On weekdays, no bus goes straight from one town to the other; you transfer in Longueuil.

Two towns of similar size, in two different regions

At the 2021 Census, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville had 26,273 residents on 42.85 km² of land, and Sainte-Julie 30,045 on 48.49 km². Between 2016 and 2021, both populations barely moved: up 0.3% and 0.5% respectively.

Saint-Bruno's population skews slightly older: its median age was 46.0, compared with 44.4 in Sainte-Julie and 43.2 province-wide, and residents 65 and older made up 23.1% of the population, versus 18.0% next door. They also belong to different regional bodies: the Longueuil agglomeration for Saint-Bruno, the Marguerite-D'Youville regional county municipality (MRC) for Sainte-Julie.

Homeowners, house types and the age of the housing stock

Both are, first and foremost, towns of homeowners and houses. According to the 2021 Census:

86.1% of Saint-Bruno households own their home, compared with 79.8% in Sainte-Julie and 59.9% across Quebec;
single-detached houses make up 70.7% of dwellings in Saint-Bruno and 66.8% in Sainte-Julie;
semi-detached homes are uncommon in both: 500 (4.8%) in Saint-Bruno and 675 (5.8%) in Sainte-Julie;
homes in Saint-Bruno average 7.7 rooms, versus 7.1, and 40.1% have four or more bedrooms, against 33.7%.

The clearest gap is when the homes were built. In Saint-Bruno, 48.3% of dwellings date from 1961 to 1980, and 60.1% were built in 1980 or earlier; in Sainte-Julie, that share is 35.9%, and the largest group (43.2%) dates from 1981 to 2000. Finally, 2.9% of Saint-Bruno's dwellings were built between 2016 and 2021, compared with 5.5% in Sainte-Julie, so recent homes are proportionally scarcer in Saint-Bruno.

Services and transit: each town has its strengths

On the Sainte-Julie side

Sainte-Julie charges nothing for its local public transit, according to the city, whoever the rider, whatever the hour and whichever local route; only the express routes and taxibuses cost the regular fare. Around Geoffrion Street, however, the stops are served only by taxibus T34, on reservation; the free local routes leave from the Sainte-Julie terminus, about 8 minutes away by car. For walking and cycling, the town has a network of more than 40 km.

On the Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville side

Saint-Bruno has a station on exo's Line 13 – Mont-Saint-Hilaire: seven trains stop there in each direction on weekdays, and the ride to Central Station takes 28 to 32 minutes. Sainte-Julie has no train station; from Geoffrion Street, the McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand stations are about 12 and 15 minutes away by car, with no traffic. Saint-Bruno also offers the Centre d'exposition du Vieux Presbytère, a heritage and culture trail of some twenty sites, six of them new in 2026, and the walking loop around Lac du Village.

Vilamo, the neighbourhood where BÉAcité is going up

The City of Sainte-Julie refers to this area as the "Sanctuaire de la Vallée du Richelieu (Vilamo)". According to the city, it covers 33.5 hectares around the Vallée du Richelieu golf course, near exit 105 of Highway 20, is planned for roughly 400 to 500 single-family homes of one or two storeys, and sets aside 15% of the project for community and recreational space.

This is where Maisons Pépin is building BÉAcité: 50 semi-detached single-family homes on Geoffrion and Bissonnette streets, with an all-inclusive maintenance program, complete landscaping and three models (semi-detached bungalow, Duo cottage and Urbain model). The project also presents itself as an alternative to the intergenerational home, an idea taken further in the piece on choosing a multigenerational home near Saint-Bruno. According to beacite.com, local businesses can be reached on foot, and residents receive a free three-year membership at Espace Tonik Nature.

As for the drive from Saint-Bruno to Sainte-Julie, it covers about 13 km from Saint-Bruno's city hall, roughly 17 minutes in free-flowing traffic, via rang des Vingt-Cinq and then Highway 20.

Why read resale prices with care?

Centris statistics for the third quarter of 2026 put the median price of a single-family home sold at $882,500 in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville (up 3% year over year, 58 sales) and $690,000 in Sainte-Julie (up 15%, 33 sales). Keep four caveats in mind:

these are resales, not new homes;
they lump together every single-family home, whatever its age or size;
they cover a single quarter, the third of 2026, and a few dozen transactions;
they tell you nothing about what a brand-new semi-detached home costs, and BÉAcité does not publish any prices on its website.

As for municipal taxes, each town's rate applies to a different assessment roll, and no recent comparable rate turned up: ask each municipality for an estimate.

Conclusion

On paper, living in Sainte-Julie or Saint-Bruno means choosing between two towns that have more in common than not: both are towns of homeowners, close in size, linked by the mountain, rang des Vingt-Cinq and route 340. Saint-Bruno has its train station and, on average, larger homes; Sainte-Julie has a more recent housing stock, free local transit and the Vilamo neighbourhood.

Still on the fence about living in Sainte-Julie or Saint-Bruno? Nothing beats seeing it for yourself: on a Saturday, hop on route 340 at the Promenades or ride rang des Vingt-Cinq by bike, then walk the streets of Vilamo and compare with where you live now — distance to shops, yard upkeep, and how many rooms you really need.

Living in Sainte-Julie or Saint-Bruno: what the numbers say