July Sales: Taking the Summer Off

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Only three one- or two-family dwellings were posted by local agents as selling in the month of July, normally one of the slowest months of the year, but this is a record low volume for the month. Prices ranged between $1,190,000 and $1,840,000 and mark-ups over valuation ranged between 36 and 67 percent, but the volume is so small as to make the individual statistics meaningless.

We would expect that some agents have also taken the summer off and will post sales reports on their return to the city; at the same time that only three sales were reported for July, another three were added to the June sales list, bringing the total for that month to an even dozen.

And while the paltry volume makes the trends less reliable, the sales statistics continue a surge which started in March, with the average mark-up rising from 20 percent in February to 55 percent in July. The average number of days to sell has dropped to only 22 compared to 129 days in February, five of 15 sales in June and July have been double-ended by the listing agent (who also became the selling agent), and four of the 15 went for more than the asking price, while another six were within 95 percent of the asking price.

Five Westmount condominium sales were recorded in July in a very tight range of prices between $550,000 and $699,000, with an average mark-up over valuation of 29.5 percent, about the same as the 31.4 percent mark-up in 18 sales during the second quarter of 2019. Though none of the July sales was more than $1 million, the “typical” Westmount condo with a valuation of about $843,100 now would sell for more than $1.1 million.

Another six single-family sales were posted in July in adjacent-Westmount areas, including three to the north of the city limits (south of Queen Mary Rd.), two in the Trafalgar-Daulac area just east of the city limits and one in the “Golden Square Mile,” on Redpath St. Strangely, no sales were reported in July in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce, though the district reports 22 sales so far this year on Grey, Vendôme, Marlowe and Northcliffe Aves. and Côte St. Antoine Rd., double the volume for southern Côte des Neiges. In all the adjacent-Westmount districts the average mark-up for the year ranges between 32 and 37 percent, about the same as Westmount’s overall annual statistic (37.3 percent).

As of mid-August, the number of available listings for Westmount homes has jumped by two to 119, though the number asking between $1 million and $2 million is down by seven, while most of the new listings coming on the market now are asking between $2 million and $4 million. Two more houses were rented in the previous month, while the number available remains at 27, a figure which has fluctuated between 20 and 30 over the past three years.

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