Overall for Nova Scotia, the MLS data is pretty consistent with what individual regions are showing as well.
There is a relative decline from our peak in April and March where thing where home sales took cooling amid news of interest rate hikes.
But Home Sales are a whole different story than home sale Prices. Comparing the Nova Scotia home sale prices of August to July, there is just a decrease of $1000 from $350,000 down to $349,000 for the province as a whole. Comparing to August of last year that is an 8% increase from $321, 533.
When you break it down by area in Central Nova Scotia where I service, the Annapolis Valley saw an increase from July up 7% to 300,000 on average home sale median price and that is up 11% of August 2021. The South Shore has seen an increase of 7% as well up to 325,000 for August which is 17% above August 2021.
The other area that I cover is Halifax Dartmouth which did see a home sale price reduction of 11% from July to August, bringing down the median sale price to $430,000. But this is still up 7% of August 2021 of the median price of $400,000
Other ways I analyze what the market is doing are days on market, list-to-sale ratio, and months of inventory. These categories are also consistent across all of the MLS areas compared to these three Central areas of Nova Scotia.
The days on market are increasing slightly but the average is still only 13 to 17 days now for August.
The list the sale ratio is hovering around 96 to 98%. Homes in Halifax are still going for 100% of this price on average whereas on the South Shore list the sale ratio has dropped to 96%.
Based on the number of buyers looking, the south shore has the greatest amount of inventory with 3.6 months worth, and the Annapolis Valley is averaging 3.1 months of inventory but Halifax is still severely low at 1.6 months worth of inventory.
Is it a seller’s market or a buyer’s market you ask? Well, in my opinion, it is both. Well technically we are in a seller’s market because the inventory is below a 6 months supply, but let me explain why I think we are in a buyer’s market as well.
Now as recently as just a few months ago, Sellers were getting offers on their properties
so high that it was like winning the lottery for many of them. And many buyers could afford to pay these prices because the cost of borrowing was so low. Even if buyers had cash from the sale of their previous properties they were still getting mortgages because the rates were too good to pass up.
But Now that interest rates are on the rise, buyers borrowing power has lessened and inflation has made buyers more decerning with their purchases. In turn, the sellers are no longer seeing the frenzied behavior from buyers as soon as they would list a property. And they require more experienced/ educated REALTOR® analysis when setting a list price, as opposed to starting high or testing the market.
So the interest rates are still relatively low but undoubtedly going to keep rising in an attempt to curb inflation, this is why I think it is a pinnacle time to buy. Combine this with inventory starting to increase and the sellers having to lower their expectations I would also consider this a buyers market as well or at least a leveling out of the playing fields.