April, May Sales: Coming Alive

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Westmount’s real estate market suddenly came alive in April and May this year, with six late-reported sales doubling the six sales previously reported for April, then 17 more in May. The jump in volume appears to be drawing a rise in prices, too, as the adjusted average price of a home has now cleared $2.6 million after wallowing between $2.4 million and $2.5 million for the previous six months or so.

In fact, the six late-reported sales for April (which may have to do with removal of conditions or, quite simply, real estate agents on holiday) include the highest price for the month at $5,300,000, and the lowest price not just of the month or the year, but the lowest price since February, 2016, as a house admittedly in deplorable condition on Burton Avenue sold for $560,000. (This was the house which, for the past several months, was the only one asking less than $1 million in our monthly reports.)

Then in May, one upper-Westmount house sold for $4,245,000 — though evaluated at $4,762,900 — while another on Lansdowne Ave. above Sherbrooke St. went for $1,095,000, still about 10 percent below valuation. In fact, the May list shows seven of the 17 sales were for less than valuation, and the total (unadjusted) sale price is only half of one percent above the total valuation. But once the extreme sales are removed, the average comes to 3.7 percent, which is the highest average mark-up so far this year, when the new valuation roll came into force.
The burst in sales also applies to the condominium list, which had only one condo sold in April; now we have 10 sales for the second quarter of 2023, including three in April and seven in May, for prices ranging from $599,000 to $2,175,000; three of the 10 were for more than $1,000,000, and the median price was $764,000. The average mark-up (with June sales still pending for the second quarter) is 7.9 percent, with only two of the sales less than their valuation.

In adjacent-Westmount, the most active area was the “Golden Square Mile” east of Côte des Neiges, where four house sales were logged in May, including one house on Redpath Crescent which sold for $7,000,000, almost 42 percent above valuation.

While sales volume increased dramatically in April-May, the number of available house listings in Westmount in mid-June dropped by only five, to 101, in a price range from $1,148,000 to $25,000,000 — the latter price held by two local houses. There are also 25 houses for rent in Westmount, and already this year 23 houses have been rented, compared to 33 in all of last year.

Posted by andy May 2023

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