September Sales: Volume Remains Strong

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The Westmount real estate market picked up momentum in August and maintained it through September, it appears, though some prices in September were well below municipal valuation; at least three houses were hold-overs from last year which finally got sold.

In fact, late postings added seven more sales to the August list, bringing the total of one- and two-family dwelling sales to 16 compared to an average of 11 sales in the mid-summer month. In the same way, there may be more late postings of September transactions but for the time being agents have recorded 12, including four which went for less than valuation. Still, of the 12 sales, all but four were over $2 million with the range between $1,230,000 and $3,845,000. One of the higher-priced sales involved a mark-down of almost 25 percent from the city tax value, an upper-level house which had been on the market for more than a year. The relatively modest mark-ups in September went as high as 42.5 percent, and the raw average mark-up was only 6.6 percent, but once adjustments are made, the “average” Westmount house stayed close to the $2,300,000 value around which it has hovered since mid-summer 2019.

Three condominium sales in September — and one more late arrival for August — put the total condominium volume in the third quarter of 2020 at 14 sales with an average price of $1,124,071, though only five of the sales were for more than $1 million, three of those above $2 million. Prices went down from there to $575,000, offered for an apartment at 4476 St. Catherine St. Four condominium sales were converted duplexes/triplexes, three of which ranged in price from $728,000 to $752,000, while the other went for exactly $1 million. The average mark-up over valuation for third-quarter condos was 18.9 percent, about the same as the average for one- and two-family dwellings in August.

Adjacent-Westmount sales picked up, too, with four each in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce and southern Côte des Neiges, but only one more in the Trafalgar-Daulac area just east of the city and no more in the “Golden Square Mile,” where the sale of a luxury mansion for $18 million in August has distorted all the statistics there. Another three Westmount houses were rented in the past month, bringing the total house rentals this year to 33, only one less than at the same time last year.

The number of active listings in Westmount increased by only one in mid-October as this is being written, with 96 houses on the block asking prices from $1,050,000 to $17,950,000, with four asking more than $10,000,000.

Posted by andy September 2020

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