Westmount real estate agents took the month of July off, it appears, since only one house sale was posted along with four condominiums, though some early vacationers must have returned home and posted their June results, as the number of sales for that month increased by four. Until we get more sales agreements dated for July, we will have recorded the skimpiest month on record in Westmount, at least for the last 24 years!

Looking at June and July together, as we suggested last month almost all the sales are for amounts under $1 million (one of the new June results was for $1.7 million) and the one sale in July was $890,000, so the trend continues. Only about 15 percent of the listings are for less than $1 million, so until the buyers and sellers can agree on basic price ranges, there may be far less sales in Westmount. We had expected a fairly busy fall season, but we sense now that there is strong resistance to the price levels that Westmount has achieved, and there may have to be a rethink to get the markets started again.

This is played out by the four condominiums which sold in a range from $351,200 to $730,000, still offering an average 25-percent markup over valuation, the same as the June markup for single-family homes and slightly higher than the average markup for condos in the second quarter of 2010.

Buyers also looked at adjacent-Westmount homes and settled on prices from $615,000 to $1,250,000, with only one sale over $1 million, on Circle Road.

This is not to say that the value of Westmount homes is not still there, especially those in the range of $1 to $2 million, just that it is getting more and more difficult to find buyers for those on the market. Until the agents get back to town and begin digging out those buyers, real estate sales in Westmount might be hard to come by.

Buyers of $1 million-plus Westmount homes turned tail in June, when eight houses sold through agents, but only one more than $1 million.

Five out of the eight houses sold between $940,000 and $980,000; the lowest price was $615,000 and the highest $1,425,000, meaning all of the listings in the high $1 million braciket and higher stagnated during the end-of-season sales period. There may still be some late reports of offer acceptances in June, but for now it looks like the lower end of the market is the only portion to be working. The average price of the eight sales was $964,438, the first time in a year that the raw average price has been below $1 million. With the average markup rising to almost 40 percent, on the other hand, the average adjusted price of Westmount real estate hovered around the $1.3 million mark; it’s just that houses with that kind of price tag aren’t moving. Volume is still well below average but has been declining steadily over the years as prices moved higher and higher. So far this year 79 sales have been posted by agents, compared with 77 in the same six months last year, though at the time prices were in a steep slide.

The condominium market slowed down as well, with only two new sales to report, one upper duplex at $458,000 and one apartment at $510,000. For the second quarter (April to June), volume was strong at 13 sales, but the average markup over valuation dropped from 30 percent in the first quarter to 20 percent in the last three months. Again, for the quarter, only one condo sold for more than $1 million, compared to three of the nine condos which sold in the first quarter of 2010. On the other hand, only three condos brought prices below $500,000, and five of the 13 were in the range between $510,000 and $575,000.

Last year as the economy faltered Westmount recorded 21 house rentals in the first six months, ranging from $2,300 to $10,000 per month. This year the volume has dropped to only 12 between January and June, though rental rates are up to a range between $2,800 and $12,000 a month.

Three June house sales were announced in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce between Westmount and Decarie Boulevard for prices ranging from $730,000 to $950,000, and four more sold just east of Westmount in a broad range from $355,000 to $1,575,000. So far this year markups are higherthan last year in every sector, especially in the area just east of Westmount’s border.

Volume can be expected to drop during July and August as agents take the summer off, or spend their time wrapping up the sales they achieved during the spring.

Westmount’s springtime real estate market ended with a sigh as May drew to a close, while agents desperately tried to clear out inventory before the summer begins.

So far agents have posted only nine home sales for May, which along with March and April represents the busiest season for selling Westmount real estate. Volume so far this year is up only slightly from the first five months last year, when the financial world was reeling on the brink of collapse, but otherwise at its lowest point since the referendum years of 1994-95. Only one sale topped the $2 million mark in May, all the rest were under $1,500,000 and four of the nine were less than $1 million. The average markup over valuation dropped to 16.7 percent compared to 39.7 percent in April, and only three of the houses were on the market for less than a month.

Instead, it seems, agents got busier in the condominium market, with five new sales bringing the second-quarter total to 11, compared to only eight in the second quarter last year, and June figures have still to be added. Markups are generally lower than they were in the first three months of 2010, down from 30.4 percent to 18.1 percent, only one sale topping the $1 million mark.

If we suggest that buyers are resisting the higher prices in Westmount, how would we explain that only one more sale in adjacent-Westmount was posted in May, on Circle Road, plus half a duplex (condominium) on Victoria Avenue near Queen Mary Road? No new sales were reported in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce, nothing to report in the Trafalgar-Daulac area, nor in the “Golden Square Mile” or Shaughnessy Village.

Even rentals are down this year. Last year the Montreal Real Estate Board reported 17 Westmount homes had been rented in the first five months, with prices as high as $10,000 a month. This year, the number is only 12 and the highest rent is $8,500.

We were encouraged by the April figures after a slow March, now we are less than enthusiastic about May. Last year the market picked up into the summer months; we can only hope that the trend continues this year.

Some 58 sales have been negotiated in the first four months this year, more than the 50 which agents reported for last year. The volume is still low compated to most spring markets, but with at least half the prices over $1 million, it is not at all surprising that the market is limited. Still, it appears there are plenty of buyers who can afford Westmount real estate.

The April saleprices averaged 46.7 percent higher than municipal valuation, compared to an average 34.1 percent in the first three months of the year, with only one house selling for less than 22 percent above tax value. This reflects the fervor we have been hearing about in the market, and indicates that the frenzy may continue into the summer.

The lowest price in four condominim sales, $510,000 for an upper duplex on Windsor Avenue, indicates that the fervor might be spreading into that market, as well, since it is higher than prices for five of the nine condos sold in the first three months. Another lower duplex on Argyle Avenue went for $790,000, highest price in April. The average markup of 20 percent is lower than for single-family homes, but the sample size is so small that comparisons lack significance. What is important is that 13 sales this year have averaged 28 percent higher than valuation, compared with only 14 percent in 29 sales last year.

Agents were busy in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce and southern Côte des Neiges, with four and three sales, respectively, in “adjacent Westmount” sectors. Only one more home was sold in the Trafalgar-Daulac area just east of Westmount and none in the Golden Square Mile or Shaughnessy Village. Prices for these homes were generally in the $700,000 to $800,000 range, though one on Circle Road sold for more than $1.3 million. It is no longer astounding to hear about such sales in adjacent-Westmount areas.

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Westmount real estate prices held their own in March, hovering around the $1.3 million average where it has rested since about last October. With 16 sales reported in last month, the number has remained approximately the same as every month since October except for January, when only four one- and two-family homes were sold in Westmount. In fact, March is suppiosed to be the busiest of the year as buyers seek out homes for summertime moves, but this year the volume is fairly low.

The 16 sales include one for only $380,000, touted by agents as a “renovator’s delight,” but in fact the municipal valuation was only $209,800, so the markup was some 81 percent, by far the highest of the month. The $380,000 price was the lowest since 100 Abbott Avenue was sold last May (and registered in the same month) for $250,000; very few Westmount homes these days are selling for less than $500,000.

Top price in March was $1,900,000, an indication the four sales over $2 million in February were something of an anomaly, though Westmount had seen 14 two-million-plus sales in the year before that. And one house sold for less than municipal evaluation, in fact the first this year, with a stunning 14-percent reduction from tax value. The average markup was 31.3 percent, compared with 31.0 percent for February and 34.5 percent for January, thus it is quite consistent.

One condominium, a luxury unit at Château Westmount Square, sold in March, bringing the first-quarter total for 2010 to seven sales with an average markup of 23.4 percent, slightly lower than for one- and two-family dwellings. Prices in the first three months offered as wide a range as ever, with one studio apartment selling in February for $168,000 and a luxury unit selling in January for $2,200,000, so any talk of average prices would be misleading.

Seven house sales were reported in adjacent-Westmount areas, including three in Côte des Neiges south of Queen Mary Road, two of those surpassing the $1 million mark, as did one sale in the Trafalgar-Daulac area just east of Westmount. Prices appear to be strong in most areas but especially those two. Two other million-dollar-plus sales have been reported this year in the “Golden Square Mile” area of Montreal, among twenty home sales in adjacent-Westmount.

The sales averaged $1,670,400 which is the highest raw average price in Westmount’s history, and though the “adjusted” price declined somewhat, thanks to lower markups on some of the high-priced sales, it does not seem to spell a decline in interest in Westmount real estate. Below the four $2 million-plus sales were another five between $1 million and $2 million, and the other six ranged from $750,000 to $895,000. All of the sales were over municipal evaluation, but several were only slightly higher, helping to pull down the average markup (once extreme sales are excluded) to 23.5 percent, its lowest point since last September. Four of the 15 sold in less than 10 days, bringing down the average days-on-market to 98, only the second time in the past year that the number has been below 100 days.

Five condominium sales were reported in February, all but one in a range between $410,000 and $507,000, the only other one involved a bachelor apartment which went for $168,000. The average markup so far this year is 22 percent, lower than for one- and two-family dwellings. None of the converted duplexes have sold so far this year, though one co-op apartment sold in February.

Agents were busy in adjacent-Westmount, as well, steering nine sales in February alone after sux were logged in January. Most of the houses ranged in price from $715,000 to $875,000, with two over $1 million, one on Redpath Crescent and one on Trafalgar Road. Markups are generally higher than they had been in 2009, though the “Golden Square Mile” sales are lower than last year.

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A busy December in Westmount real estate meant agents had to catch their respective breaths in January, it appears, and try to find listings for what could be a busy spring season.

Only four home sales were posted in Westmount as having been negotiated in January, compared with a record 18 reported for December. But those include one at more than $2 million and another just over $1.5 million, which indicates that the price scale is no longer being driven by the bottom of the market. Average price of the four sales is $1,510,625, and the average markup over city assessment is 34.5 percent, with the range from 20.7 percent to 56.9 percent. Only one of the sales of single-family houses was less than $1 million.

Of course, with holidays and extended vacations we can expect that more sales will eventually be posted with January dates, but the four strengthen our view that the market has recaptured all of the losses incurred during 2008. Still, there are plenty of houses available at the top of the market — over $2.5 million — which are not moving at all.

Only one condominium sale was posted in January, but even that showed signs of confidence in the Westmount market, with a price of $2,200,000 for a two-storey condo in one of Westmount’s most prestigious buildings. Because it was only one sale, it is hard to make any statistics with it, but we can say that the market here is pretty much at the same level as it was in mid-2008, when it peaked out at an average $655,000 for a condominium with a tax value of $557,300.

Adjacent-Westmount sales in January included one house on Redpath Crescent and another on Trafalgar Road, a condominium in the Trafalgar Apartments, 3980 Côte des Neiges, and another at 2000 Claremont Avenue, corner de Maisonneuve. No house sales have been reported so far this year in either eastern Notre Dame de Grâce or the Circle Road area.

Agents still are complaining about the lack of listings, and it appears there is plenty of demand. Of the four sales, the lowest-priced sold in a day at almost the full asking price, while the highest-priced took 300 days to sell, boosting the average days-on-market for the month to 111, but this is actually lower than the December average of 179 days.

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Real estate agents were active in Westmount last month, arranging more sales than have taken place in any December since 1997. Nine of the 15 sales involved prices above the $1 million mark, and six of those were for more than $1.5 million. The average adjusted price went past the $1.3 million level where it peaked in November, 2007, meaning that prices are now fully recovered from the two-year-long recession.

Volume has been above average for five of the past six months, an indication the buyers are confident that prices won’t go back down, and during this time the value of the “typical” Westmount house has risen from about $1.2 million to $1.3 million or 8 percent. Since July, eight sales have been posted above $2 million but none more than $3 million. In fact, buyers were willing to commit more than $3 million five times in 2008 — as the market was sliding — but never found that level throughout 2009.

In December, the 15 sales averaged $1,300,700 and the prices ranged from $670,000 to $2,337,500. Only one sale was posted at less than municipal valuation while one other went for more than 2 1/2 trimes its tax value; the average was almost 30 percent, down slightly from 31 percent in November, but because the last two months were so strong, the prices keep moving up.

Only one new condominium sale was posted in December, bringing the last-quarter total to five. The year 2009 recorded 29 sales with an average markup of 14 percent, down slightly from the 17-percent average markup during all of 2008. Volume was about the same in each year, with two sales over $1 million in 2008 and three in 2009, mostly at 1 Wood Avenue.

In adjacent-Westmount, volume of single-family dwelling sales was much higher last year in the “Golden Square Mile” and Trafalgar-Daulac areas, as prices and markups dropped substantially in both districts, an indication buyers were waiting for the vendors to get realistic about the recession. The northern and western fringes of Westmount, on the other hand, experienced about the same volume in 2009 but slightly higher prices, based on the markups over valuation. Shaughnessy Village residences hardly sold last year, except for one sale on Tupper Street and another on Seymour Street.

It appears there is plenty of demand out there as we enter the spring real estate season, now the question is whether there will be enough supply. For the last two months the average time on the market has been over 200 days, an indication the sales involved houses which were “holdouts” from last spring and summer. As these listings disappear there is little new stock to replace them.

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The Westmount real estate market continued to get stronger in November, as agents logged 14 house sales, nine of them over $1 million including one which cleared $2 million. The lowest prices include two in the $500,000 range and one more at $670,000, but it is becoming difficult to get much in Westmount under $1 million. Only one sale went for less than municipal evaluation while one other went for more than double the city tax value. The average markup in November was just under 30 percent and helped boost the value of a “typical” Westmount house close to $1,300,000, nearing its peak established in October/November of 2007. The comeback since March has been dramatic — though we warn that often the trend has been much higher one or two months before or after New Year’s day, when volume is lower and sellers are willing to wait a while if they do not get their price.

With one month left in the year, volume has jumped ahead of last year’s pace, and in fact has pulled ahead of 2005, though otherwise it is still the slowest year since 1996. But definitely the low interest rates — as well as the realization that the economic crisis was not as bad in Montreal as it has been south of the border — has helped the Westmount market. We also note a significant jump in days-on-market, with three sales of houses which had been on the market for more than a year, but this may be because there is still a serious lack of new listings.

As for condominiums, the most recent sale so far reported by agents was on November 1, and three of the four in the third quarter ranged between $300,000 and $400,000. The average markup for the quarter so far is only 8.25 percent, the lowest quarterly markup this year, but higher than the fourth quarter of 2008, when only three sales were recorded.

In adjacent-Westmount, prices are slightly higher this year than last year in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce and southern Côte des Neiges, though volume is about the same. Markups overall are lower in areas to the east of Westmount but volume is much higher in the Trafalgar/Daulac area and “Golden Square Mile,” lower for Shaughnessy Village.

We can expect agents to slow down over the next two months as we celebrate the holiday season,which we hope will be joyful for all. Certainly with an improving economy there is great hope for prosperity as we move into a new decade.

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It may have been the returning confidence in the economy, it may have been the low interest rates, it may have been a combination of factors, but certainly the effect has been to create one of the busiest October real estate sales periods on record in Westmount. Agents now are starting to complain about a lack of supply, and certainly prices are staying firm as we move toward the end of the fall buying season.

Eighteen one- and two-family dwellings sold in Westmount last month, double the number from September and double the number from October last year. Coupled with six sales in the last week of September, things appear to be moving fast. And while prices have not regained all of what they lost in 2008, they are still strong and could get stronger.

Prices ranged from $532,000 to $2,350,000, but only five of the eighteen sales were for less than $1 million, and in fact fouir were above $1,500,000, compared to only one above that mark in September. The average markup stayed at about the 25-percent level, with only two houses selling under the city assessment.

Only two condominium sales have been posted in October, ranging from $300,000 to $350,000, one an apartment and one a flat in a triplex, but five co-operative apartments in some of Westmount’s large apartment buildings sold last month. The co-ops ranged up to $795,000, indicating buyer acceptance of this method of ownership.

Even adjacent-Westmount saw a surge in sales, five sales each in the Côte des Neiges section and east of Westmount (including the “Golden Square Mile”) and four in the Notre Dame de Grâce section, counting September and October together. The averages per district were between $575,000 and $725,000, only one of the 14 sales was for more than $1 million.

Volume turned south in July of last year and stayed well below average through June 2009, but now appears ready to regain its normal pace. The October volume figure is the highest for the month since 2003; in October 1997 agents posted 23 sales, and two other years since 1986 have seen more than 20 sales in October.

So far this year there have been 29 house rentals compared to 25 reported throughout 2008; perhaps more important, the range of rents this year is between $2,300 and $12,000 a month. Last year there was one rental over $7,500; this year four have been reported.