Busy January, light February in local sales

The first month of this year saw closings of transactions for 14 single-family dwellings and two duplexes, for prices ranging from $480,000 to $3,025,000. The Montreal registry office also processed one transaction of a Grosvenor duplex which had actually been signed at the notary’s office last July and another sale of a small house on Greene Avenue in December. The former brought a price of only $370,000 and the latter $410,000, both far below the typical prices for Westmount homes.

Among the sales signed in January, the top price involved a large home at 6 Sunnyside Avenue, whose price soared above the next-highest price, $1,750,000 for 617 Carleton Avenue. From there prices were bunched mainly in the range between $700,000 and $1,100,000, then the low of $480,000 went for 26 Winchester Avenue which was the only sale under $700,000.

Markups were drastically lower than typical for Westmount, not only because this is the first list to be compared to the new 2007 valuation roll, but because prices were generally down since the middle of 2006. Seven of the 16 one- and two-family houses sold for less than the new 2007 valuation, the biggest markdown involving the double-coach house at 565-65A Victoria Avenue which sold for less than 80 percent of its new tax value. On the high side, a relatively modest semi-detached house at 50 Summit Circle sold for almost 70 percent more than its municipal evaluation, with a price of $888,000.

Only one condominium sold in January, one of the first resales of a unit at 205 Victoria Avenue, corner St. Catherine Street, built in 2005. The third-storey apartment was purchased from the developer in February, 2005, for $414,000, selling two years later through an agent for $470,000.

Also sold in January was the 64-unit apartment building at 235 Metcalfe Avenue, which went for $7,075,000, well over its 2007 municipal evaluation of $4,609,100.

In February, six single-family dwellings changed hands for prices as low as $379,000 – an estate sale – and as high as $3,800,000, for a huge brick home at the corner of Westmount and Argyle Avenues as well as a detached garage and coach house (602 Argyle) which was evaluated separately. The latter sale also represented the highest markup of the month, some 60 percent more than the combined valuation of the two premises, while the biggest markdown took place for 42 Summit Crescent, which sold between two family trusts with different principals involved.

Two condominiums sold in February, one a duplex-type condo at 466 Grosvenor Avenue, which brought 20 percent more than its municipal evaluation, while a lower-floor apartment at 1 Wood Avenue sold for 10 percent less than its combined apartment-garage evaluation.