Montreal home buyers squeezed in tighter market as sales and prices rise

MONTREAL – The Montreal real estate market continues to tighten as home sales rose amid a drop in listings last month.

The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says residential sales hit 4,339 in June, a year-over-year increase of seven per cent.

The uptick came during the 45th consecutive monthly drop in the number of active listings, prompting a spurt in prices, particularly on the outskirts of the Island of Montreal.

The median price of a single-family home hit $352,250 last month, an eight per cent rise from June 2018.

Condominiums cost two per cent more at a median of $261,000, while the price of plexes with two to five units jumped six per cent to a median of $539,000.

The biggest overall sales increases occurred in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and the North Shore, where they soared by 16 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. Vaudreuil-Soulanges was the only area to see a drop in sales, on the heels of spring flooding in many neighbourhoods.