May Sales: Suffering a Relapse

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The Westmount real estate market took a slight relapse in May after showing strong signs of a comeback in April. In fact, the April market ended up being far more exciting than we originally portrayed it, with four more sales added to the month’s list, one April 30 sale of a semi-detached house on The Boulevard for $8,340,000, ten of 14 sales in the month cleared $2 million and three (including The Boulevard) over $3 million.

Then as the calendar turned to May, agents have logged eight sales in a tight range from $1,200,000 to $2,425,000, only three for more than $2 million, with mark-ups over valuation up to 10.5 percent and two with mark-downs below 10 percent. The average was a 3.3 percent mark-down, the first average mark-down since January. After adjusting for the extreme sales the “typical” Westmount home value dipped even lower than it was in January, when we thought the market was preparing for a spring rebound.

Five more condominiums were added to the second-quarter condo list, including one for $600,000, the lowest price of the quarter (with June sales still to be added). The list so far includes four condo sales under $1 million and four above that mark, up to more than $2.3 million for an upper-floor apartment at 1 Wood Ave. Again, the price:valuation ratios are split evenly between those above valuation and those below, with an average mark-up of 1.4 percent.

The market was fairly weak in adjacent-Westmount areas, as well, with only two houses sold in the southern Côte des Neiges area, one house, a flat in a former duplex and another in an undivided triplex in eastern Notre dame de Grâce, houses on Upper Trafalgar Place and Tupper street to the east of the city, and then one condominium and two co-op apartments at the Trafalgar and Gleneagles apartment buildings on Côte des Neiges Rd. Only one of all the adjacent-Westmount sales achieved a price more than $2 million.

There are now — as of mid-June — four houses listed with asking prices under $1 million, the most since November 2019. The number of active listings for Westmount has climbed to 136 houses, the most since August, 2016. While the sales in May were somewhat lacklustre, four of the new listings are asking between $5 million and $10 million, and a new listing asking $23,900,000 has pushed up the top asking price in the city. Five new house rentals were posted in the last month for monthly rates between $4,700 and $8,500.

Posted by andy May 2024

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