Halifax picked as best home buy

September 11, 2018

Halifax has been picked as among the best places to buy a home, edging out much larger and smaller Canadian cities.
Money magazine ranks Halifax No. 5 on a list of “20 sleepy towns set to boom.”
According to the magazine, Halifax could be the next hot housing destination because incomes are high, the cost of housing is low and there is consistently strong job growth.
While buying a home in Vancouver and Toronto has become unaffordable for most, people can still buy a detached house in Halifax for about $325,000, the report notes. 
This is no surprise to Clinton Wilkins of Centum Home Lenders Ltd. of Halifax.
“Halifax is boom town,” he said.“Homeownership is obtainable and realistic here. On an average household income, you can buy a single-family detached home.
“You can buy a nice single-family home in Halifax for the same price as a bachelor condo in Toronto,” continued Wilkins. “I would even venture to say that you could even buy a new single-family home for that price.”
Wilkins expects the action to continue this year and “into 2019, for sure,” pending other major changes.
“If the Bank of Canada stays steady with the rate, that will help us. One issue in Halifax is we’re having a bit of a supply issue. For a long time, it was a buyer’s market and the shift is now to a seller’s market, and sellers haven’t caught up with the demand. There’s not enough supply.”