June Sales: Volume Soars

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The late-blooming Westmount real estate market exploded into full foliage in May and the explosion continued through June, it appears, pushing the value of a typical Westmount house above the $1.4 million mark.

Eighteen sales in June followed 28 in May, both months way above average and making up for a sluggish January through March. We suspect that buyers are finally used to the kind of price levels that are going on in Westmount right now, and they are determined that they will get their Westmount property, no matter what.

Interestingly, only four houses sold in adjacent-Westmount areas while all this was going on in the city, two in the Circle Road area in Côte des Neiges, one on Vendôme Avenue in Notre Dame de Grâce and one on Baile  Street in Shaughnessy Village. Only one of those surpassed the $1 million mark, the others all were in the range of $799,000 to $860,000.

For Westmount on the other hand, the 46 sales in May and June ranged in price from $549,000 to $3,700,000, with 18 of the prices under $1 million and five over $2 million. The average price was slightly lower in June ($1,186,000) than in May ($1,282,768) but the 22 percent markup over valuation in June was slightly higher than it had been in May (18 percent).

Those who couldn’t afford the houses were ready to settle for condominiums, it seems, as four apartments sold for prices between $410,000 and $865,000; already six had sold in April and May, bringing the second-quarter average price to $577,250 and the average markup to 11 percent.

Rentals of houses were up considerably this year compared to last year:  In the first six months of 2011, the Multiple Listing Service shows 18 houses rented in Westmount for rates ranging from $2,450 to $7,000 per month, compared to last year when only 12 house rentals were reported in the same time period for rates going up to $12,000 per month.

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