Overview of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Real Estate Market

The Halifax real estate market includes all of Halifax Regional Municipality. This would be areas such as Halifax city, Dartmouth, Bedford, Sackville, Fall River, Hammonds Plains, Purcell's Cove and much more. This page will give a summary of what our Halifax Real Estate Market is like.

The HRM real estate market can best be described as strong and steady. There are usually not large swings in prices up or down. 
Th exception was seen from 2019 to 2021. Demand for property outweighed the properties available and multiple offers starting became the norm.  When Covid -19 hit in March of 2020 many current sellers and potential sellers became afraid of having strangers in their properties so they choose not to sell. This cause supply to drop over 50% over typical years. Buyers from all over the world but in particular from Ontario were able to work from home so they decided to move to HRM where prices were cheaper, you can buy a home on a large lot and the pace was slower. Prices rose dramatically in most areas and particularly in Halifax city. Some properties were receiving over 20 offers and some sold as high as $250,000 or more over asking. From 2020 to 2021 the average price rose in HRM by 34% when the norm was between 2% and 5%
The market remains consistently strong in HRM for several reasons. There is a tremendous of amount of government employment in Halifax including the military, hospitals, universities, municipal, Provincial and Federal Government departments and more. There are always transfers coming in and out of Halifax. Halifax is also the main business center in the Atlantic Provinces so many companies have their head offices in Halifax. It is also Nova Scotia's largest city so there is steady influx of people leaving the rural areas and relocating to Halifax.

Prices tend to rise in Halifax at a steady pace. An average year would see prices rise between 2% and 5%. This varies from area to area within the region. Prices do drop slightly in HRM but this is very uncommon. Prices tend to slowly rise here or at least remain the same.

So what can you expect if you purchase a home in Halifax? You can expect a modest price increase or no change year after year but typically not the huge increases that are seen in some of the larger cities in Canada.