It is in the Montreal region and the Laurentians that the most expensive houses in the province are located in the last quarter, according to the Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers of Quebec (APCIQ), which published its most recent data on Friday.
On the other hand, the bargains are in remote areas. Baie-Comeau and Matane are the two least expensive markets.
These are the only two markets listed in the most recent APCIQ publication which display a median price below $200,000. The median price is the price that separates a given sample into two equal parts.
That said, remote location does not necessarily go hand in hand with low price. Houses in Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda, in Abitibi, have a median price equivalent to that in effect in the Trois-Rivières region, around $300,000.
Located more than 900 kilometers from Montreal and 230 kilometers east of Baie-Comeau, Sept-Îles recorded a median price of $268,750 in the most recent quarter.
Regarding price variations, the strongest quarterly price increases in a year, that is, comparing the median price of the third quarter of 2023 to that of the corresponding quarter of 2022, are observed in order in Tremblant (31%), Matane (23%) and the Drummondville region (16%).
At the other end of the spectrum, the median price fell by 11% in one year in Rouyn-Noranda and remained stable in the Gatineau region (1%), Saguenay (2%) and Sept-Îles (2%). %).
“The general stabilization of market conditions to the advantage of sellers across Quebec is helping to raise prices to levels higher than those of the second quarter of 2023 in several markets, at the same time catching up with most of what had been lost during the price correction recorded in the second part of 2022,” maintains Charles Brant, director of the APCIQ Market Analysis Department, in a press release.
“We note, however, that the situation is evolving differently in several resort markets, their market conditions now tending to return to balance and even favor buyers. These are warning signs of the precarious nature of this market improvement. »
Residential sales across the province were 18,283 in the third quarter of 2023, up slightly by 1% compared to the same quarter in 2022. This is an above-average level of activity for this time of year, observes the APCIQ.