November Sales: Tumbling Back

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Westmount real estate prices took something of a tumble in the past few months, despite the fact that the market is tightening up for the holidays and agents are beginning to think about next spring’s potential.

Of nine houses which sold in November, only three houses went for more than $2 million and none over $3 million, while another three sold under $1,500,000. By coincidence, the lowest-priced sale, at $1,295,000, happened to be the highest mark-up over municipal valuation at 74 percent — in fact the only mark-up of more than 50 percent — while the highest-priced sale, $2,850,000, brought the only mark-down of the month, four percent under city tax assessment. The latter was in fact the only mark-down since May, and that 16-percent mark-down involved the only other house sold this year (so far) at less than valuation.

(The figures, of course, do not include “exclusive” listings such as the record-high $18.5 million sale of 12-14 Sunnyside Ave. in November, more than double its municipal valuation. These private listings are becoming more popular as volume decreases and demand continues to grow.)

At latest report only 74 Westmount houses are available for sale, down from 81 a month earlier, though most of this drop is in the $1 million to $3 million range. This volume can be expected to grow as we get into the late-winter months.

While the house sales appear to be fading into the winter, the condominium market is nothing but strong. Eight sales were posted in November; added to nine in October, the fourth quarter of the year has 17 sales with one month left to go, up from 12 in the third quarter and 15 in each of the first two quarters.

It may simply be that so many potential Westmounters can no longer afford to handle the costs of home-ownership: the range of prices among the 17 sales is $500,000 to $1,680,000, with 10 of the sales over $1 million. Two of the sales had prices less than valuation, the only two mark-downs since Jan 14. Of 13 sales for less than 10 percent mark-ups during the year, 10 were either at 200 Lansdowne Ave. or 175 Metcalfe Ave.

Also sold during the year were 11 sales at Nos. 2 and 3 Westmount Square, of which five were sold in the fourth quarter (with December still to come), an indication these are becoming more popular as the price of houses gets higher and higher. Those sales are shares of the buildings, thus co-ops, so the prices paid cannot be compared to the valuations.

Thus, we move toward the end of the year on a bit of a down but not without promise for the spring market. Let me wish all of my friends both within and outside the real estate industry a very happy holiday season.

Posted by andy Posted in: Monthly Analysis No Comments » November 2021

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