'We just want to stay': N.S. family struggling to find affordable home may be forced to leave the province

A Nova Scotia family says they may be forced to leave the province due to the lack of affordable housing units on the market.

Steph McNamara has lived in an apartment in Dartmouth, N.S., for the last two years and says she loves it, but can't stay.

“I just wanted to start off by saying we love our landlords. They have been amazing to us,” McNamara says.

McNamara's landlords live downstairs below her. A family member of the landlord, who can’t find a place to stay, will soon be moving in, which means the McNamaras have to move.

They were hoping to stay within the Halifax Regional Municipality, but housing prices are outside their budget.

Now, they’re not even sure they can stay in the province.

“I think when you know you want your roots to be here in Nova Scotia and you just can’t quite make that a reality, it's really hard,” says McNamara.

However, there could be hope on the horizon. The real-estate market is showing signs of evening out in the last month-and-a-half.

“Buyers have a little more leverage. There’s a bit more inventory, so an extra couple hundred houses on the market as compared to a month ago, so there’s a little more choice,” says the president of Royal Lepage Atlantic, Matt Honsberger.

It’s the same story in New Brunswick.

“The fever pitch seems to have lessened,” says New Brunswick realtor Danielle Johnson.

Johnson says the market is cooling across the country where many of the buyers were coming from, adding that is playing a roll to the slowdown in the Maritimes.

“In the past, we could’ve gotten 14 offers, 20 offers. Now, maybe we’re getting two or three,” Johnson says.

But it might be too little, too late for the McNamaras, who had big plans in their future.

“We are community-minded people; we want to build a retreat for autistic kids. We have a daughter who is autistic and we just feel like Nova Scotia is where she needs to be. There are amazing resources here and we just want to stay here," she said.

Meanwhile, they have put out a plea on social media, hoping to find a way to stay in the place they call home.