March Sales: Tailing Off

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The March real estate market appeared to be tailing off not only in terms of prices but volume, as Westmount agents posted only six sales, a record low in a month which averages close to 20, leading into the spring season. In fact, March of 2018 tallied a record low (up to that point) of nine sales, but a busy January this year has meant the two years have the same volume for the first three months.

The average price of those six sales was $1,939,167, with three sales less than $1,500,000 and the other three over $2,000,000. By coincidence, the highest-priced sale, at $2,950,000 for a semi-detached house on Clarke Ave., was also the only price in the month to be less than municipal evaluation, while the lowest-priced sale, at $1,200,000 for a row-house on Somerville Ave., had the highest price:valuation ratio, selling for 60 percent more than valuation. The average mark-up among the six sales was 18.3 percent, down slightly from February’s average mark-up of 20.0 percent and well below the average mark-up for all of last year of 28.6 percent.

The trend reflects the moods of Toronto and Vancouver, where higher borrowing costs and a tightening of regulations, among other things, were slowing the markets, though in Greater Montreal the spring months have been positive. A dipping market this year could bring confusion among some Westmount homeowners next year, when the new valuation roll will be based on the market of mid-2018, and many frustrated homeowners may be forced to pay taxes on something more than they can get for their houses.

March completed the sales statistics for the first-quarter condominium sales in Westmount; volume was up slightly from the previous two quarters, but again, prices were down, and the average mark-up over evaluation, at 17.5 percent, was almost exactly the same as in the fourth quarter of 2018. The average price of 10 sales in the quarter was only $635,100, and only one sale was over $1 million, at $1,035,000, hardly typical of some of the luxury condo prices Westmount saw in 2018.

Four new sales were posted for Marlowe and Vendôme Avenues, showing a stirred-up interest in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce, but there is apparently little action in the southern-Côte-des-Neiges district, where only two sales have been reported for all of 2019. In both districts the prices are generally over $1 million; unfortunately for other areas of adjacent-Westmount there are not enough sales to report the results statistically. On the other hand, that may be the news, that sales volume has fallen off badly in the first three months of the year.

Perhaps because of the slow market, the number of Westmount houses listed by mid-April had jumped from 90 to 100, including five asking less than $1 million, the same number as in mid-March. Every other price category had an increase in numbers, including the $10-million-plus category, which went from four to six. The number of houses for rent in Westmount dropped from 24 to 22, with 10 asking between $10,000 and $27,000 per month, even though no rentals have been reported for more than $9,000 in either 2018 or 2019.

Posted by andy Posted in: Monthly Analysis No Comments » March 2019