Hey Halifax, Brenda K, here with the Halifax home selling group with the monthly stats of what’s happening in Halifax real estate. So let’s check out the active listings. Right now we have a hundred listings and in 2019 we had 2008 listings. Isn’t that crazy? We have never been in this mode with that amount of listings before. Now I do want to point out though, that in March there were a hundred new listings to come to the market. So what’s been happening in the market for about the last 18 to 20 months is you’d have, maybe 25 new listings come on in one day and you’d have 35 come off the market under condition. So, it just completely depleted our inventory to the point where we are now. So, hopefully, those listing numbers keep up because that’s the only way we’re going to shift this market.
The number of sales for March 2022 is 542 units. Last year’s unit sales for March were 755. So we’re down 30%, but so is our inventory. So of course, our units will be down because our inventory is so far down, which is reflected in the sales year to date. The unit sales year to date is 1127. Last year for March we had 1,640 unit sales. So again, these trends all stem from the number of active listings being down. Sale units year to date, we’re down over 542 units. Again, if we don’t have listings to sell, the market’s not going to correct itself here in Halifax. The average number of days on market for March is 11 days on market. In 2019, properties were 68 days on market. I remember 2015, we had like… 180 days on, on market. So we never want to go back to those levels of inventory either. The month supply is less than 2 weeks. If no other homes get listed for the next two weeks, we would run out of inventory. I do want to say we are referring to all types of residential home sales. We’re not differentiating between the styles of what we’re selling.
The average price: is $590,000 in Halifax for March 2022. In March 2021 the average price was $478,000. That is insane… I’ve had so many, first-time home buyers calling me and they’re getting discouraged asking “how am I ever going to get into this market?” There is a lot of buyers fatigue out there, and it’s disheartening. So again, the more inventory that comes on the market, the better we are going to be able to shift, this market around. $490,000 was the average list price for March 2022. The average selling price is $590,000. The average price in Halifax was $100,000 over the list price. That’s our average, right? To find our buyers a home within their budget we have to shop $50,000 – $100,000 less than that budget. In the fifteen years, I’ve been in the real estate business, the percent over list price has typically been anywhere between 96% to 98%. Now it’s 125%, this is a little bit insane! So appreciation is 23%… isn’t that a nice number to see if you are sitting on your equity and you’re looking for that value of your home to go up? The appreciation of homes in March 2021 was 34% indicating that the appreciation has cooled a little bit.
Let’s talk about a few of our MLS districts. Sackville had 63 homes sold in March, so Sackville was the most popular place buyers wanted to live. Homes sold in Fairview were only 5 days on market the Sambro to Ketch Harbour area took 30 days to sell. In Hammonds Plains homes only 4 days to sell your home. Other areas of HRM: Waverley, Fall River, Albro Lake and Crichton Park only lasted 5 days.
From the time homes are listed, buyers view the home and ultimately get an offer in less than a week., The best deal for real estate in April 2022 was Eastern Passage with an average price of $444,000. Our highest average sold price is actually in Halifax County at $899,000.
What can you get for the average price?
In March 2022 the average home price was $590,000 so let’s check out a couple of areas. If you want to be in Armdale, you get a house that’s a little older, built-in 1953, and 1600 square feet. In Bedford, a split entry that was built in 1991, 2,488 square feet with a double garage could be yours and lastly, in Cole Harbour, $590,000 would give you a split entry there also, 2446 square feet that was built in 1982.
So if you have any questions about the market, feel free to email brendak@brendak.ca or call me directly at 902-471-8497. If you enjoy my blog please subscribe to my Youtube channel, follow me on Instagram and Twitter and like us on Facebook for all you need to know about the Halifax real estate market.