Mortgage Renewals - How to deal with high interest rates

I’m not sure about you, but to me everything at the moment seems unreasonably expensive. The deodorant I like was on “sale” for $6.50 and I started to wonder if I’d really smell that bad without it. The other thing that stinks at the moment is the cost of borrowing money.  In twelve short months, the bank of Canada has raised interest rates from 4.79% to 7.09%.  While these aren’t the highest rates in history, the pain being felt is because of how low they’ve been in recent memory.  

The sticker shock of today’s rate environment has a lot of people dreading mortgage renewal time. We spoke to a mortgage specialist recently.  People walking into his office are terrified of making ends meet when…

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The Sackville Market is Hot. Hot. Hot!

I was out showing houses this past weekend in Sackville and one thing is certain, Sackville homes are in demand and selling fast!  That’s the case for much of HRM, but the majority of homes in the Sackville area are sitting in the sweet spot of market value.   More than 60% of home sales in the Halifax area occur between $300,000 and $600,000.  The less expensive a home is, the more competition it attracts.

For example, a home we viewed at $419,900 obtained a whopping 15 offers. Our client successfully bid on a home that was listed for $495,000, where we were up against 5 other offers. A near-new build listed for $574,900 attracted 8 offers, largely due to the location and that it was full of modern flair.

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If you bought a home at the Peak of 2022, you’re okay!

I’m sure that if you purchased a home in April or May last year, everyone you spoke to about it had a look of terror wash over their face. It would have followed with doom and gloom comments about rising interest rates and how they were going to cause a calamitous drop in home prices. While rising rates did cause a slowdown in sales and a 16% drop in average price, those losses are almost completely erased in six short months.

At time of writing, the average price of a home in the Halifax Regional Municipality is $572,000 (based on a rolling 3 months of data). At the peak, we were at $602,000.  At the bottom, we were at $506,000. Since the bottom in October, the average price has recovered by…

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New North End Condo - Navy Lane Update

We are edging ever closer to the launch date for Navy Lane condo and we are excited to learn all about it while sharing the information with you.  Prior to then, we have a glimpse into what the rooftop “play space” has to offer.  There’s both an indoor and outdoor gym, a lounging area with firepits, pool, and an indoor private space for your fun get-togethers! 

With a view of the Halifax harbour, the developer has also made sure to give a nod to the historic ties to the Navy in the area.  You’ll be able to use the retro-style tower viewer (fancy binoculars other tall buildings make you pay for) to see all the goings on in the harbour!

Check out the image below:

 

While You’re here

Pros and Cons of…

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Monthly Market Snapshot | January 2023

January in 2023 represented the slowest month for sales since at least 2009, which is when our stats tool started recording data.  That sounds scary, but everyone needs to remember we still have a pretty significant inventory shortage. 

There are only 523 homes for sale in all of HRM - Single Family and Condos. That means we only have 1.2 months of supply (Strong Sellers Market). This is at a time when rental rates have increased nearly 10% year over year. 
Despite fewer sales and higher interest rates, the average price of a home has remained largely unchanged since September. This is due to a lack of inventory and sky high rental rates.
There's no question the market has slowed down and that's why you…

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The Art of Negotiation

For the past two years, the value we’ve brought to our clients has been in the form of winning competing offers when buying a home, or leveraging multiple offers when selling. Now that the market has taken an abrupt turn, it is important that your Realtor changes their tactics to ensure your success when making a move. 

When selling, your Realtor now needs to do a lot more work to obtain feedback from buyer agents while encouraging them to submit an offer.  Obtaining an offer is half the battle, the other half is negotiating favourable terms.  It’s unlikely you’ll like everything about an offer when it is submitted, but it is always advisable to work with the buyer to reach an agreement where everyone is happy.

Buyers today…

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A NORMAL PERSPECTIVE

As summer is in full swing, a cooler real estate market still represents a hot one. It is easy to lose sight of perspective when it comes to Halifax real estate.  For years, it ticked slowly upwards without absurd swings in either direction.  The last two years dominated the media and in turn, dominated conversations across the province.  It is important to understand the statistics that form the foundation of our current housing market.

The number of sales in June 2022 was only beaten once in the past twelve months - in May of 2022.  Sales remain strong even though inventory is on the rise.  However, we still only have 1.4 months of supply.  This means that if nothing else were listed, it would only take a month and a half for…

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The Inventory Chasm

The jump in the average price from December to January is nothing short of astonishing. Sales are down by almost 40% from last year, but that's not due to a lack of buyers. Rather, there is simply nothing to buy. Let me paint a picture for you. Currently, there are only ten condos for sale on the entire Halifax Peninsula. Two of those are listed below $400,000, the next cheapest is $1,014,500. That is a gap better described as a chasm. In January, the average price of a home in the Halifax Regional Municipality was $581,180. Sellers were on average obtaining 111% of their asking price. 

Next, let's talk about a certain Spryfield semi-detached. A nice home built in 2010, well-maintained and with a few recent upgrades. We listed…

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2nd Quarter Market Update | A Price Plateau

Before I tell you why we are having a difficult time explaining the numbers, we’ve got to talk about the numbers. Average price in the second quarter only went up by 0.8% in comparison to 12% in the previous one. Total sales in the 2nd quarter were 1,960 in comparison to 1,466 in 2020.  In the past year, the average price increased by 32% driven by low supply and high demand.  However, back in 2020 we had more than double the inventory – 1,079 homes for sale versus 470 in 2021.  So why has the average price plateaued?

Making Sense of the Numbers

Based on the numbers alone, there is absolutely no reason why the average price is not continuing to increase.  Market value is based on supply and demand. We…

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Generally, when I look at real estate stats, I use data based on 12 months of activity - where each point measures 12 months of data.  The more data we use, the better we understand trends.  However, things are changing rapidly in Halifax and the only way to properly demonstrate that is by using monthly sales data.

In the first quarter of 2020, the average sale price of a single family home in the Halifax Regional Municipality was $344,644.  In 2021 at time of writing, that number has skyrocketed to more than $475,000.  This represents a 39.5% increase.  The most significant jump occurred from December  to January  where the average monthly sale price increased from $426,705 to $468,548.  Low inventory is not a new problem.  It was a challenge in March…

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