December Sales: Time Out

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Real estate took a huge “time out” in Westmount during December, it appears, with only four single-family homes sold during the month, the first month to have single-digit volume since January, 2016, when agents logged eight sales. Of the four in December, the price range was $938,000 to $3,325,000 and the mark-ups over city valuation ranged from 8.9 percent to 38.5 percent. The average mark-up was 19.4 percent, in line with the averages of the previous three months but all four well above the averages for the year.

In fact, there was greater interest in Westmount’s condominium market, which logged six apartment sales in December, with one $250,000 sale but otherwise all in a range from $500,000 to $699,000. Added to the lists of October and November, the fourth quarter of 2017 counted 14 sales of condos ranging up to $1,561,000, with an average of $780,000, down slightly from the $806,000 in the third quarter, but with more than double the volume.

The slow residential market means the 181 one- and two-family sales volume for the year 2017 was less than in 2016, but otherwise it was more than for any other year since 2007, when 187 sales were reported. An astounding 198 sales made up the list for 2016, but in fact three consecutive years between 1997 and 1999 logged over 200 each. The average adjusted price of the 181 sales, with a 12.8-percent markup on the average city evaluation of $1,575,722, comes to $1,777,252, up more than $200,000 over the figure for 2016.

The slumber was also evident in adjacent-Westmount areas, which logged one house sale on Circle Road and one condominium sale at Fort de la Montagne, 3577 Atwater Ave., in December. A couple of additional October-November sales in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce brought the average for that district over the $1 million mark for the first time that we have recorded; now the house sale averages in all of the adjacent-Westmount districts are over $1 million, except for Shaughnessy Village where the average residential price in five sales is $923,400.

As of mid-January, only 45 houses were listed for sale in Westmount, compared to 86 at the same time last year and over 100 a year earlier. Twenty-one rentals were available, only three for $10,000 per month or more. Overall, the year saw 39 houses rented compared with 34 in 2016 and 29 in 2015. Of the 39, six were rented for more than $10,000 per month.

Posted by andy Posted in: Monthly Analysis No Comments » December 2017