Robust sales for Montreal CMA in second quarter

There was a rise in home sales in the Montreal CMA in the second quarter of 2018.

The 4% increase from a year earlier meant a total of 14,771 homes were sold through the Centris provincial database by members of the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board.

It was the 16th consecutive quarterly rise in sales with condos continuing to fuel the activity. Sales of condos were up 13% to 5,120 with a more modest 1% rise for plexes to 1,332.

But for the first time since the second quarter of 2014, sales of detached homes slipped; a 1% decline to 8,301 homes.

Sales were unchanged on the Island of Montréal and decreased in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (-7 per cent), but the South Shore registered a 10% increase.

"Residential sales in the Montréal CMA have been increasing for four years now," said Mathieu Cousineau, President of the Board of Directors of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB) and spokesperson for the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards in the Montréal area. "This sustained pace of sales, combined with the steady decline in the number of properties for sale, gives sellers an increasingly advantageous position in negotiations."

Prices rise but active listings hit 8-year low
The median price of single-family homes ($322,509) and condominiums ($253,000) in the Montréal CMA were each up 3% and the median price of plexes with two to five dwellings ($510,000) gained 6%.

The Island of Montréal and Vaudreuil-Soulanges posted the largest increases in median price, at 7% and 12%, respectively.

On average, just over 24,000 residential properties were listed on the Centris system in the second quarter of the year, the lowest second-quarter level since 2010.

That also means a 17% decrease compared to the second quarter of last year and the eleventh consecutive quarterly drop in active listings.

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