When I first came to Toronto from doing my undergraduate in a small town in the Maritimes my mom suggested we drive around York University campus to get a feel for it. I had been considering living close to campus but after a tour around it and the surrounding refinery and strip malls, I decided I wanted to be somewhere else
I found some old friends who were also looking for a place and we started house hunting. Our search was getting desperate and we showed up on Nassau Street. We didn't even have a viewing of our potential place until the next day. It was across the street from a bar (Ronnie's) and a music store. We showed up with our deposit without seeing the inside of the place. When we moved in I used to climb up on my roof and watch the places from the air show.
The market is like nowhere else in Toronto or even Canada. It's so unique that the best thing for any reader to do is go and check it out for yourself.