Six-month year-to-date sales in Westmount, Montreal West and NDG

Dear Montrealers, I would like to thank you all for your numerous comments and inquiries to date. The 2013 Spring Market in Real Estate has come and gone, the summer doldrums have now arrived. I continue to receive the odd phone call for a visit or an evaluation, but generally business will continue as usual towards the beginning or middle of August. I like to use this time to prepare for the upcoming market. For those of you that would like to sell your home in 2013, it will be important to properly promote it early in order to maximize your chances of selling.

Usually I would provide my readers with an in depth analysis of one particular community in our city. Because we have just crossed the halfway mark in the year I think it would be wise to go over our year to date in my target markets; Westmount, NDG, and Montreal West.

One very important factor that repeats itself regardless of community is that the same number of families are moving and changing addresses than in previous years. We are noticing an increase this year, anywhere from 25 to 50 percent more properties are being rented. You may have read about this in the papers or heard about it in the news, the change in market we have been experiencing is creating a lot of speculation and home buyers are more hesitant to purchase properties even though we are in dominating buyers market.

Westmount

In Westmount we have seen decrease in the number of houses sold as well as the average selling price when comparing to 2012. Nothing alarming, we are down by 5 to 10%, which we all know could change rather quickly in a community where about 150 properties are sold per year.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame de Grace

NDG is looking very good; properties are selling for an average of 2% more than last year. The months of February and March did not produce nearly as many as previous years, which brings the total number of sales down by roughly 20% compared to previous years during the same periods. Let’s see if we can bounce back in the fall.

Montreal West

In Montreal West we sell between 30 and 45 homes per year. Because of the number of homes sold in this community, it almost requires a full year of sales to properly analyze this market. As it stands today, 8 houses less than last year have sold at this date. We have a 10% increase in average selling price however, I listed a property early this year and had an accepted Promise to Purchase on it 2 weeks after putting up the sign. This was the second biggest sale in the history of Montreal West. That also impacts the numbers dramatically.

Thank you all for the time you have taken to read my article this month, if you are planning on selling your home this year, call me for an appointment. To hit the fall market running, there is no better time than now to begin the paperwork, the grass is green, flowers are out, and the trees are full which make terrific pictures. I look forward to hearing from you.