Property sales volume in Evanton has lagged year-ago levels for nine of the last 12 months, while price increases in recent months have been modest.
For the new fiscal year that started in March, transactions so far are off 11 percent from 2005-06, although they are up 4 percent from 2004-05.
In the new fiscal year so far, the average selling prices of homes and other property covered by the transfer tax is up just 1.6 percent from the same period in 2005, and 2.8 percent from 2004.
For the full fiscal year that ended in February, average selling prices were up 13 percent from the previous year.
The transfer tax is charged at a rate of $5 per $1,000 of selling price. The city expects to raise $4,000,000 from the transfer tax this year, a level it just barely reached last year.
The largest transaction reported in April was $3 million for a lakefront property at 715 Sheridan Road. The second largest was $2.3 million for an apartment building with ground-floor retail space at 904-914 Sherman Ave.