Halifax housing hot—and getting hotter
July 10, 2019
The 7 per cent spike in resale housing transactions in the Halifax area this year is no fluke, according to real estate analyst Dane Eitel, who forecasts that the Nova Scotia capital is poised for higher sales and record high prices.
In the first five months of 2019, 2,600 homes sold in Halifax-Dartmouth, up by more than 200 sales from the same period a year earlier.
Eitel says the region now represents “one of the few growing markets across the Canadian real estate sector.”
The president of the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors apparently agrees.
“If you went back to 2014, it would have taken us 13 months to sell out of everything we have on the market,” Matt Honsberger told the Halifax Chronicle Herald. “Today it would take us six months.”
Halifax investors looking for a market appreciating in value will inevitably push prices at a steady pace higher, noted Eitel, founder and lead analyst of Eitel Insights, which accurately predicted Vancouver’s housing downturn a year before it began.
“Halifax’s historical chart indicates once a growth phase begins, they tend to last long periods of time. The inventory is drying up and will continue to do so. Low levels of inventory ultimately create a frenzied buyers mentality. That mentality will propel [Halifax home] prices to all time new highs,” Eitel said.