A new report by Ottawa’s financial oversight body revealed that the average house prices in Halifax are 74% higher than what most households can afford. Louis Perrault, the director of policy, noted that affordability in Halifax has not seen any improvements following the previous assessment in February 2022. In contrast, cities like Toronto and Hamilton have shown improvements in affordability. Among the 11 Canadian cities analyzed, Halifax stands out with the largest disparity between house prices and what typical households can manage.
The report highlighted that while house prices have stabilized in some costly metropolitan areas post-pandemic, they have continued to rise in markets like Halifax. Real estate agent Umme Sardar compared the current housing market in Halifax to the competitive market she experienced in the Greater Toronto Area in the early 2000s. Sardar mentioned a slight softening in the condo and higher-priced home segments in Halifax but emphasized that demand surpassing supply remains a key driver of price increases.
Sardar acknowledged government efforts to streamline housing starts but indicated that more action is needed to address the ongoing price surge. According to the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors, the average home price in Halifax-Dartmouth surpassed $600,000 in the first nine months of the year, marking a 3.9% increase from the previous year.
The report also examined the financial strain households face when purchasing homes, using mortgage debt service ratios to gauge affordability. Perrault highlighted a significant deterioration in Halifax’s financial strain compared to over a decade ago, with households now needing to allocate nearly one-fifth of their pre-tax income to mortgage payments for an average house, almost double the ratio from 2012 to 2014. Despite this, Perrault mentioned that Halifax’s debt service ratio is comparatively better than in other parts of the country, citing Vancouver as an example where households spend over one-third of their income on mortgage payments for an average home.