Halifax Population & Growth

[Dartguard]

Its supply and demand. Nova Scotia grew by 14.3 % in Population post Covid, the largest Population growth in Nova Scotia's peacetime history. The Covid restrictions forced folks in Ontario and other points west to vacation or visit here as that was the only choice to travel. Throw in our former relatively cheap housing and we now have among us mid career, Mortgage free, new residents.
Stanfield has 12 flights a day to Pearson so its almost like we are a far eastern suburb of the GTA.

[kzt79]

Compared to Toronto (and for that matter, almost anywhere else) Halifax offers:

- lower pay
- higher taxes
- high costs in general; housing used to be "cheap", but not so much any more

There are many good reasons to want to live in Halifax; for most families, money won't be one of them. We seem to somehow have achieved many of the negatives of larger cities (eg top 5 worst traffic in US/Canada) without the benefits of same (eg high paying jobs).

All levels of government have worked very hard to restrict housing supply while stimulating demand; the results are plain to see.

We're starting to get a little bit of change around the margins. This will likely lead to a slowing of the rate of increase or even some degree of price stagnation, which would be a good thing. I can't imagine the median Halifax house going for $2-3M in 15-20 years but I guess anything is possible!

[someone123]

I'm pretty skeptical of claims that Halifax has quickly become as expensive as Toronto for housing and whenever I've looked at articles claiming this they quickly fall apart. People spending comparable shares of their income doesn't mean anything; people may still be getting more for their dollar. Another bunch of articles was based on self-reported data.

It can be hard to compare because Halifax is smaller. For example, you can live in an exurb by Halifax and have a one hour car commute around most of the metro area, whereas in Toronto you'd have to live in the equivalent of Fairview to have a commute like that. The transit in Toronto can be better but unless you are wealthy, you're looking at buying at most a shoebox condo near transit. Halifax still has starter homes with modest commutes to downtown available in the 400-500k range.

[someone123]

I came here to post this link to some estimated populations for parts of Halifax for 2024:
https://halifaxpartnership.com/research-strategy/halifax-index/communities/

They estimate that downtown went from 26,627 to 32,882, growing by 23.5% just from 2021-2024, while they put the peninsula as a whole at 85,771. The growth was around 3/4 urban and 1/4 rural (really "exurban", or "fringe suburban").