October Sales: Slow, again

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If September’s slow sales list wasn’t enough to worry Westmount homeowners, they got no encouragement from the October list, just as slow but not quite as low. Of the four real estate sales in October, one cleared the five million mark, but the others were all under $2,000,000. Three of the four were double-digit mark-downs from city valuation and the average of the four was -13.9 percent. The lowest price was for a semi-detached home on Belmont Ave., actually selling for less than a townhouse on Burton Ave. (which represented the only mark-up of the four sales).

The four single-family sales in each of September and October are bringing down the year’s volume to levels unseen since 1994, when Quebec was beginning to talk about holding a second referendum. This time, it is more likely that the slowdown is caused by the rising interest rates, which force many buyers to pay considerably more for loans, whether these are to purchase the house or to use the house as collateral for investment loans. In the past decade both months have averaged 14 sales per month; each had only seven sales in 2022, but otherwise each month had more than 10 sales during the decade.

Only two condominium sales were posted in October, one 27.8 percent above valuation and the other 11.5 percent below valuation, coming off a third quarter (July-September) which averaged only a 3.5-percent mark-up in nine sales. Last year the fourth quarter showed 10 sales, so we need considerably more action in November and December to hold even with last year’s volume.

The latest tally of available listings jumped by one compared to a month ago, still with slightly more in the $2-$3 million range than below $2 million, and with 35 out of 97 properties asking more than $3 million. Only one house is listed at less than $1 million; the two which had been listed for $25 million both have come off the market, so the highest asking price right now is $18,000,000 for an upper-level home.

The house-rental market is getting more active, with four more contracts negotiated in the past month to bring the year’s total to 40. There are some 35 houses available for rent, for rates ranging from $4,350 to $25,000 per month, though the highest contract awarded so far is for $15,700 per month.

Two sales in September and October on Northcliffe Ave. make up the entire list of adjacent-Westmount sales either west or north of Westmount’s borders. There were two sales to the east of the city limits and then two more in Shaughnessy Village, along with condominiums at Trafalgar Apartments, 3982 Côte des Neiges, and M sur la Montagne, 3150 Place de Ramezay, and one co-op apartment at Gleneagles, 3940 Côte des Neiges.

Posted by andy October 2023

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