Monthly Market Snapshot | January 2023

January in 2023 represented the slowest month for sales since at least 2009, which is when our stats tool started recording data.  That sounds scary, but everyone needs to remember we still have a pretty significant inventory shortage. 

There are only 523 homes for sale in all of HRM - Single Family and Condos. That means we only have 1.2 months of supply (Strong Sellers Market). This is at a time when rental rates have increased nearly 10% year over year. 
Despite fewer sales and higher interest rates, the average price of a home has remained largely unchanged since September. This is due to a lack of inventory and sky high rental rates.
There's no question the market has slowed down and that's why you…

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The Art of Negotiation

For the past two years, the value we’ve brought to our clients has been in the form of winning competing offers when buying a home, or leveraging multiple offers when selling. Now that the market has taken an abrupt turn, it is important that your Realtor changes their tactics to ensure your success when making a move. 

When selling, your Realtor now needs to do a lot more work to obtain feedback from buyer agents while encouraging them to submit an offer.  Obtaining an offer is half the battle, the other half is negotiating favourable terms.  It’s unlikely you’ll like everything about an offer when it is submitted, but it is always advisable to work with the buyer to reach an agreement where everyone is happy.

Buyers today…

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A NORMAL PERSPECTIVE

As summer is in full swing, a cooler real estate market still represents a hot one. It is easy to lose sight of perspective when it comes to Halifax real estate.  For years, it ticked slowly upwards without absurd swings in either direction.  The last two years dominated the media and in turn, dominated conversations across the province.  It is important to understand the statistics that form the foundation of our current housing market.

The number of sales in June 2022 was only beaten once in the past twelve months - in May of 2022.  Sales remain strong even though inventory is on the rise.  However, we still only have 1.4 months of supply.  This means that if nothing else were listed, it would only take a month and a half for…

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The Inventory Chasm

The jump in the average price from December to January is nothing short of astonishing. Sales are down by almost 40% from last year, but that's not due to a lack of buyers. Rather, there is simply nothing to buy. Let me paint a picture for you. Currently, there are only ten condos for sale on the entire Halifax Peninsula. Two of those are listed below $400,000, the next cheapest is $1,014,500. That is a gap better described as a chasm. In January, the average price of a home in the Halifax Regional Municipality was $581,180. Sellers were on average obtaining 111% of their asking price. 

Next, let's talk about a certain Spryfield semi-detached. A nice home built in 2010, well-maintained and with a few recent upgrades. We listed…

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2nd Quarter Market Update | A Price Plateau

Before I tell you why we are having a difficult time explaining the numbers, we’ve got to talk about the numbers. Average price in the second quarter only went up by 0.8% in comparison to 12% in the previous one. Total sales in the 2nd quarter were 1,960 in comparison to 1,466 in 2020.  In the past year, the average price increased by 32% driven by low supply and high demand.  However, back in 2020 we had more than double the inventory – 1,079 homes for sale versus 470 in 2021.  So why has the average price plateaued?

Making Sense of the Numbers

Based on the numbers alone, there is absolutely no reason why the average price is not continuing to increase.  Market value is based on supply and demand. We…

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Generally, when I look at real estate stats, I use data based on 12 months of activity - where each point measures 12 months of data.  The more data we use, the better we understand trends.  However, things are changing rapidly in Halifax and the only way to properly demonstrate that is by using monthly sales data.

In the first quarter of 2020, the average sale price of a single family home in the Halifax Regional Municipality was $344,644.  In 2021 at time of writing, that number has skyrocketed to more than $475,000.  This represents a 39.5% increase.  The most significant jump occurred from December  to January  where the average monthly sale price increased from $426,705 to $468,548.  Low inventory is not a new problem.  It was a challenge in March…

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Halifax Real Estate Market | Year in Review

The real estate market became increasingly competitive throughout 2020.  Inventory saw a persistent decline while sales quickened their pace.   Historically low interest rates and a sub one percent vacancy rate in the Halifax area compounded the problem.  Rent got more expensive while the cost to borrow money was lowest I’ve seen in my 14 year career.  These factors had a significant effect on our single family statistics.

The Single Family Market

The average price of a single family home in the Halifax Regional Municipality increased by 14% in 2020.  This represents an average increase of approximately 1.24% in a month, meaning a house worth $300,000 would gain $3,720 in 30 days.  This is…

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Single Family

The average price of a single family home in the Halifax-Dartmouth region increased by 1.2% in November, which is a 13.2% increase from a year ago.  The average price now sits at $380,060. The number of listings available continues to plummet as we head into the Holiday Season and winter months.  Active listings in November fell to 635 from 817 in October.  This is down 53.1% from a year ago and 68% from 2018.  To compound the problem, sales are not slowing down.  A 13% increase in the number of sales means we now only have 2.2 months of inventory (anything below 3 months is considered a Seller’s market). This time last year, we sat at 5.5 months of inventory.  One of our agents was part of a multiple offer scenario in Bedford…

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October has come and gone.  We were lucky enough to spend some COVID responsible time with family over Thanksgiving and the kids still got to go trick or treating.  However, the Halloween costumes weren't the only thing causing a bit of fear in the HRM.  Things continue to be difficult for Home Buyers in Halifax.  The real estate market has been competitive all year and it shows no sign of getting any easier.  Worryingly, the opposite is looking more likely. 

The average price of a single family home in the Halifax area jumped by another 1.7% in October to $375,567.  That's a 13% increase from a year ago and a continuation of the sharp upwards trend we've been watching since May.  Sales are up by 12.8% year over year and our inventory has been…

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Market activity is fairly stable amid the new economic conditions. We've seen a decrease in offers and new listings but we are still seeing upwards of 70 offers a week in HRM.

Listing inventory is much lower than this time last year. It is unlikely we will see any significant price drops but we certainly won't see the same gains as earlier in the year. A cooling off period for the market is not bad news for buyers as things were extremely competitive prior to COVID.

  • Number of offers written: 30% decrease from 2019.
  • Number of new listings: 52% decrease from 2019.
  • Number of cancelled listings: 8 fewer in 2020.
  • Total active listings: 40% decrease from April 2019.

The big question is what happens when COVID restrictions lift. Some…

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