February Sales: Catching Up

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Real estate agents are scurrying to catch up with a market which is still trying to come to terms with a $2 million-plus average price for the typical Westmount house. Another five sales were added late to the January list — including one sale over $5 million — and while February so far has tallied eight sales to add to the 12 in January, we might expect a few more might be posted late, considering our list has only one dated in the second half of the month.

One January 31 sale, at $5,225,000, logged in at 93 percent more than municipal evaluation, which made it the highest price and highest mark-up of the month; in February, the highest price was just over $3 million and three of the eight were over $2 million, while the lowest price was $1,095,000 and two others were $1,150,000 each, so the raw average price in February was below the $2 million level. With adjustments and averaging included, the monthly price moves up slightly from January but still hovers below the levels achieved last fall. The average mark-up was 23 percent, not far off the averages for other recent months.

Four condominiums sold in February, the same tally as in January, and none of the eight sales was over $1 million, nor in any of Westmount’s classic high-rise buildings save for a ground-floor unit at 1 Wood Ave. The average mark-up for the first quarter (with March still to come) is 15 percent, lower than the one- and two-family mark-up.

If there is a boom, it is in the co-op real estate market, which so far has seven sales in the first two months this year, all the way from $622,000 for a share of a duplex on Wood Ave. to $1,700,000 for an apartment at 2 Westmount Square, one of the original black towers. That unit sold for three times its proportional share of the municipal evaluation, and two others went for well over double their share of the valuation, including an apartment at 439 Grosvenor Ave. which sold for even more than its asking price.

Five sales took place in Adjacent-Westmount districts; adding two homes sold in January, we have logged three sales in the Côte des Neiges area of adjacent-Westmount, three more in eastern Notre Dame de Grâce and one in the “Golden Square Mile,” on Redpath Place.

The ‘“active” market changed little between mid-February and mid-March: there are 91 houses on the market, up from 90 a month ago; asking prices range from $889,000 to $27,000,000 and there are five houses asking less than $1 million, five asking more than $10 million. Some 26 houses are for rent in Westmount, up from 24 a month ago, asking anywhere from $3,500 to $27,000 a month. So far this year four houses have been rented, all between $4,500 and $7,000 a month.

Posted by andy Posted in: Monthly Analysis No Comments » February 2019

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