Ottawa’s Budget Watchdog Finds Widening Gap in Affordability
Housing affordability in Halifax remains one of the worst in Canada, according to a new report from Ottawa’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), which found that home prices are 74 per cent higher than what a typical household can afford.
The report, released this week, shows that despite market slowdowns in other Canadian cities, affordability in Halifax has not improved since 2022 — and has in fact slightly worsened.
“It stayed relatively fixed or actually a bit worse than it was before,” said Louis Perrault, the PBO’s director of policy.
Halifax Tops Canada’s Affordability Gap
Out of 11 major cities studied, Halifax ranked first for the widest gap between average house prices and what households can reasonably afford.
While markets like Toronto and Hamilton have seen modest improvements since the pandemic’s peak, Halifax continues to climb. The PBO attributed this to a combination of high demand, limited supply, and slow progress on new housing starts.
“Over the post-pandemic period, house prices have moderated in some of the most expensive markets but have continued to increase in others such as Halifax,” the report stated.
Realtors Say Demand Still Outpaces Supply
Local realtor Umme Sardar said the city’s current housing climate reminds her of early 2000s Toronto — a “crazy seller’s market” marked by bidding wars and tight inventory.
“The government is working on reducing red tape to streamline housing starts, but it’s still not enough,” she said. “We are playing catch-up.”
According to the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors, the average home price in Halifax-Dartmouth has surpassed $600,000 this year — a 3.9 per cent increase over last year.
Households Spending More to Keep Up
The PBO also measured how much of a household’s income now goes toward mortgage payments. In Halifax, the mortgage debt service ratio — the share of pre-tax income spent on mortgage payments — has nearly doubled over the past decade.
Typical households now spend close to 20 per cent of their income on home loans, compared to just 10 per cent between 2012 and 2014.
Still, the report noted that Halifax remains more affordable than Vancouver, where households spend over one-third of their income on mortgage costs.
