September Sales: Humming Along

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Westmount real estate continued to draw strong interest in September, as 11 sales with prices between $783,000 and $1,800,000 have been posted, along with five more in late August which touches the record volume for that month, including a $4,200,000 sale which is the fourth-highest price negotiated this year.

In fact, volume so far this year is at its highest level since 2012, and before that 2008, harking back to the days when Westmount homes were averaging $1 million to $1.2 million, rather than the $1.58 million as they are this year. The lower Canadian dollar means new money should be moving into the local market and helping boost prices as it circulates from the big houses — four in August for more than $2 million — down through the smaller ones and the condominiums.

Despite a slight increase in the average markup over city valuation, from 6 percent in August to 9 percent in September, , five of the 11 sales last month were actually lower than municipal value, including two houses which had been on the market for the better part of a year. In fact, the average days-on-market dropped from 216 in August to 121 in September, with four houses selling in less than a month. The lowest price was $783,000 for a house which came on the market asking $769,000 and got into a bidding war among bargain-hunters, certainly not the first time that has happened. The highest price of $1,800,000 was one of only three houses to sell above $1.5 million, and makes the month only the second since August of 2014 that the top price was less than $2 million.

Only one condominium — part of a converted duplex — sold in September but brought the total for the third quarter of 2015 to six, in a fairly tight range from $485,000 to $927,500, with the average markup at 9 percent, same as for one- and two-family dwellings. That average markup has remained constant throughout the year, and in fact there is little variation in markups of individual condos, which have all sold in a range of -4 to +16 percent in the last two quarters.

Business really picked up in the area just north of Westmount city limits, with four house sales, a triplex and a duplex-condominium  in the last two months south of Queen Mary Road. The houses have sold between $689,000 and $1,165,507, and in fact markups this year have improved in all six adjacent-Westmount districts we have been following.

As of this writing, the number of listings for Westmount homes has actually jumped by four, to 164, of which  18 are for $4 million or more, up by two from September. The 164 listings is the highest number we have recorded in the past year, but there are more now in the $1-$2 million range than there were a year ago.

Posted by andy Posted in: Monthly Analysis No Comments » September 2015