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It’s Costing More To Buy A House In Halifax

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Tags: condominiums in halifax, halifax housing market, halifax housing prices, nsar, royal lepage

Housing prices in Halifax increased across the board in the third quarter,
says the Royal LePage house price survey.

Detached bungalows in Halifax increased by 5.6 per cent to $269,000 over the
same period last year, while two-storey homes jumped 4.5 per cent to $300,000.
Condominiums showed the biggest increase at 10.4 per cent to $193,500.

It is a “moderate” increase relative to the rest of the country, where the
average price of a home increased between 5.7 to 7.8 per cent, said Matt
Honsberger of Royal LePage Atlantic.

“This is exactly how the Halifax market has been for probably seven or eight
years, at least, in that we usually see about a five per cent annual increase,
somewhere between three and five per cent. So this is a good solid number for
this quarter,” Honsberger said.

But prices tell only part of the story because the local market is not immune
to external factors such as the worsening economy south of the border and in
Europe.

In the last available figures, the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors
reported a drop of 9.6 per cent in the number of housing sales and 1.8 per cent
in listings on its multiple listing service from February to April of this
year.

Halifax alone saw its sales and listings plummet by 10.9 per cent and 7.9 per
cent, respectively.

“It seems to me that whenever there’s some negative news it doesn’t really
affect price, as much as it seems to affect unit sales. And unit sales this year
are pretty flat compared to what they were last year,” Honsberger said.  Nevertheless, he said housing prices are a good indicator of an improving
local economy.

“Our construction industry is pretty healthy here right now, so some of that
has to do with new construction. We have a fair number of projects on the go
around this city,” he said.

“I think one of the big things that you see when you look at migration
patterns is that a lot of people from outlying areas are moving to Halifax. And
that’s what’s sort of helped buoy the Halifax market over the last, I would say,
four or five years as well.”

The better than average increase in condo prices is attributed in part to
more expensive waterfront units being sold this year compared to units sold last
year,” he said.

“We don’t have a lot of condominiums that sell this time of the year compared
to the other parts of the country. So if there are a handful of expensive ones
that sell, it affects the price pretty radically,” he said.

“The other thing that I would say is that a lot of new construction that’s
going on in the condominium world is luxury or high-end condominiums. Moving forward, Honsberger said he sees more of the same in terms of housing prices in 2012.

“I would say that one of the things that’s probably going to negatively
affect us is simply what we’re hearing about the global economic scene. That
seems to be taking a little bit of hold in terms of consumer confidence more
than anything,” he said.

“But in terms of the local market and how we’re positioned as a city, we have
never seen the big swings in real estate prices that you see out west or the
U.S., so we’re kind of a healthy growth kind of story, which is exactly where we
want to be.”

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