Real estate prices in Halifax-Dartmouth soaring

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the Halifax and Dartmouth area has seen the highest house price gains in the country.

While the cost of homes are now lower than last year, a recent report by the real estate association said houses for sale in Halifax-Dartmouth jumped the most of any region in Canada since January 2023.

House costs jumped most between March and April 2023 — up 7.6 per cent.

Chandler Haliburton, a Halifax area realtor said this is due to a shortage of supply.

“Inventory is the entire issue. Anecdotally I’ll say you’ve got maybe 10 buyers for one listing. We just don’t have a lot of people moving and that’s largely because of demographic reasons,” Haliburton said.

The realtor said Halifax-Dartmouth does not currently have new homes coming to the market, making it a “really challenging right now for buyers.”

Nova Scotia Associations of Realtors President, Matthew Dauphine, said another reason prices are on the rise is because interest rates stabilized in February.

As the weather warms up, Dauphine said it is expected that more homes will be put on the market.

Currently, the average home price in the Halifax-Dartmouth area is between $400,000 and $500,000. Haliburton said this is an attractive price point and that the market is quite active.

“There’s a lot of people still looking, so a lot of competitive offers [are] going in on homes,” he said.

While bidding wars are common in the Halifax-Dartmouth area, especially over the last four years, in recent weeks, Haliburton said realtors are seeing offers well above two per cent.

“Certain areas like here in the north end or downtown Dartmouth, or anywhere on the peninsula where the market is really hot, you’re going higher than five, 10 and even 15 per cent over asking,” Haliburton said.

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