June Sales: Slowing Down

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After a burst of energy in May, the Westmount real estate market slowed significantly in June this year, with nine sales of one- and two-family dwellings compared to 17 the previous month, only one of those over $2 million (at $3,200,000), bringing an average price of $1,597,722, the lowest raw average price since January of 2018. The average mark-up over valuation dipped to 33.3 percent from 43.1 percent the previous month, but in fact that average is not the lowest this year, an indication that buyers are simply grabbing the lowest fruits on the tree but still paying decent prices for them.

In fact, the lowest price of $1,125,000 involved a house whose asking price was $995,000 but was bid up in the 11 days it was on the market. Of the nine sales, three sold above their asking prices, only two had mark-ups of less than 25 percent (the lowest was 9.6 percent) and only two were on the market more than 50 days, so the fever is still simmering just below the boiling point.

Still, the sales volume this year is only 67 sales for the first six months, the lowest year-to-date volume since 1994 when the Westmount market was facing near-death; house prices at that time were averaging 86 percent of their then-municipal valuation.

Just as many homes came on the market as were sold in June, leaving the total listings in mid-July at 117, though most of the new listings are asking more than $2 million and only five now are under $1 million. Five more house rentals were posted in June bringing the half-year total to 26, compared with a total of only 18 at the same time last year, though the number jumped by nine rentals last July. This year three rents are more than $10,000 per month; none last year were reported.

The slowdown of the single-family market allowed the condominium market to catch up, as the average mark-up in the second quarter of 2019 jumped 18 points to 34.6 percent, just about even with the single-family average. The adjusted average price of Westmount condos has now been over $1 million for more than a year, sitting now at $1,061,811, a record high.

New sales in adjacent-Westmount favoured eastern Notre Dame de Grâce (4) and southern Côte des Neiges (3), with only one sale in the Trafalgar-Daulac area, one in Shaughnessy Village and none in the “Golden Square Mile.”

Posted by andy June 2019

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