December Sales: A Busy Month

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Thirteen sales agreements were posted in December, making that the third-busiest month of 2019. Normally December is the weakest month of the year for negotiating sales; this year agents posted more sales in December than in any months except May and September. The total for last year is only 131 sales compared to 151 sales in 2018 and an average of almost 168 sales per year. Except for 97 sales in 1994, leading up to the second provincial sovereignty-association referendum, this is the lowest number of one- and two-family dwelling sales in Westmount in the past thirty years.

Prices, on the other hand, are as strong as ever, perhaps technically not as strong as they were in August but basically with an average adjusted price in the range of $2,200,000 to $2,300,000, where it has been since April. The average mark-up compared to 2017 valuation moved up to 45.5 percent and the price range went from $950,000 to $3,300,000, with four sales above $2 million. While there were none of the very high-priced sales to pull the average back over $2 million, the average for 2019 stayed above $2 million and if compared to the “typical” Westmount house with a (theoretical) 2017 valuation of $1,575,722, the average 2019 value would move up to $2,184,274.

Only two new condominium sales were posted in December, but they brought the fourth-quarter volume to 12 sales, almost all in apartment buildings but with the lowest price for a flat in a Claremont Ave. triplex at $570,000. They moved up from there to $2,200,000 for a penthouse at 215 Redfern Ave., and included four sales at 1 Wood Ave. The fourth-quarter average mark-up was 28.2 percent, thus much lower than the average for one- and two-family dwellings, and in fact the average mark-up has dropped from 35.1 percent in the third quarter of the year. Still, the adjusted average price of Westmount’s condominiums was just over $1,113,000; it has been over $1 million since the second quarter of 2018.

Things were busy in adjacent-Westmount areas, as well, with five new single-family sales posted in three districts in December. It is significant to note that, among the main adjacent-Westmount districts, the year 2019 saw a decrease in volume (one- and two-family dwellings) for the southern Côte des Neiges district and the “Golden Square Mile,” with increases for eastern Notre Dame de Grâce and the western part of downtown Montreal. In all districts (except Shaughnessy Village) the average price of a house is over $1.3 million, up by 8-16 percent in every district except eastern N.D.G.
As we moved into the holiday season the number of available house listings in Westmount dropped off sharply, from 121 to 95, now with only one house asking under $1 million (at $889,000) while there are still five asking more than $10 million, but the numbers have shrunk in every other price category. No new rental agreements were negotiated in December, apparently, thus 41 rentals in 2019 compared to 47 in 2018; however, five of those 2019 rentals were for more than $10,000 a month, while none were posted at that level in the previous year.

And so we begin the new year with a healthy real estate market; indeed, while the median price for the Island of Montreal in December was $549,500, we’re talking about four times that amount for your “typical” Westmount house. We expect things to pick up as winter turns into spring, with a healthy economy and few clouds on the horizon.

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