Halifax house prices; modest increase

Halifax has had a modest increase in its housing prices for the first three months of 2015, new data from Royal LePage has revealed.
 
Values for standard two-storey homes went up 2.7 per cent to $334,667, while detached bungalows jumped 0.7 per cent to $297,667. A standard condo unit also gained 5 per cent year-over-year to $230,000.
 
Matt Honsberger, broker and regional manager with Royal LePage Atlantic, said the volume of sales was relatively light and the price increases must be viewed with that in mind.
 
“So when you start talking about average price, it could be affected a little bit by a couple of sales only if there’s a couple of high-dollar-amount (ones),” he told the Chronicler.
 
The area had about 870 sales, a dip when compared to about 1,000 for an average first quarter. The lower figure for real estate investing was said to be partly attributed to the harsh winter.
                                                                     
“We had a record number of houses in the summer of last year. I had never seen more than 5,000 active listings, and we were at about 5,200, and no negative pressure on price,” Honsberger said. “We were pretty flat year-over-year, and I would anticipate that in terms of the price, we’ll probably end up the year here again flat.”

Halifax’ figures, however, are very different to the rest of Canada. The report said many markets have experienced a “soft landing.”
 
“(The rest of Canada) has been experiencing very brisk, you can’t keep a house on the market for more than a few days kind of conditions, and we have not experienced that over the last three years,” Honsberger said. “We’ve been a market where it’s been firmly the buyers in the driving seat, the sellers have had to have been much more patient to sell their properties.”
 

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