Heavy volume in June

The stone mansion at 55 Belvedere Place, which is actually a portion of the huge Noah Timmins mansion which had been split apart in 1962, brought its owner $5.25 million, the most expensive home sale in Westmount since the larger section of the house, 65 Belvedere Place, sold for $5.6 million in September last year.

Besides that one sale, however, no sales were registered for more than $1.5 million, though there were 13 sales between $1 million and $1.5 million. That was the largest price group; there were no sales in the $900,000 price range, six in the $800,000 range, eight in the $700,000 range, seven more between $449,000 and $665,000. The lowest price was for 114 Abbott Avenue, one of two sales at less than $500,000.

The highest markup involved a made-over coach house at 17 Severn Avenue which brought a price of $1,495,000, well over double the municipal evaluation of $633,600. Five homes sold for less than the city’s tax value, the lowest at 25 Winchester Avenue – the second under-$500,000 price – which is evaluated at $560,900. On average, the sales were 28.5 percent higher than the municipal evaluation, the highest for any month this year which pushes the value of the “typical” Westmount house to almost $1.3 million.

Deeds for nine condominium purchases also appeared during June, with prices ranging from $250,000 for a flat at 3171 St. Antoine Street to $2 million for the top-floor apartment at 285 Clarke Avenue. The average markup was only 3 per cent and the highest was 27 per cent, an indication interest in condominium purchases is still lagging. In the first quarter of 2007 there were only three condo sales with a price:valuation ratio of 99.6 per cent; in the second quarter, thanks largely to the nine signatures in June, the ratio moved up only slightly to 103.3 per cent.

Four shares of duplexes and triplexes were sold in June for prices ranging from $295,000 to $483,000, and one apartment at 435-39 Grosvenor Avenue cost $367,000.

No commercial or retail buildings sold in June.

NOTE:The preceding article relates to the registration of deeds of sale for Westmount property in June, 2007, provided by City officials.