With Compliments of

Michele Vyge-Fraser
Real Estate Agent/ Associate Broker/ CNE®

Happy New Year!

Hello 2021! 

May this year be full of restored light, new possibilities and better times ahead. How lucky are we to live in Nova Scotia where it continues to be a 'beacon of light' for so many people near and far. Our real estate market continues to validate all of the years of hard work and vision of so many including our extraordinary public and private sectors and our wonderfully diverse growing communities, towns and cities. The sellers market is still very strong with good listings in short supply across the province.  According to our Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), in all of 2020, home sales totalled a record 13,923 units in Nova Scotia. This was an increase of 13% from the same period in 2019 and marked the highest level of any year in our history, beating the previous record set in 2019 by more than 1,500 sales. The annual average price, across the province, was $291,224. up 13.8% compared to 2019. In HRM, Halifax-Dartmouth, there were 7,591 residential 2020 sales (approximately 55% of the provincial sales) with the average selling price having increased 14.6% to $369,435. 

The big question is 'will this continue'? Despite the conflicting opinions, I believe it will. The pandemic, in my opinion, added more fuel to our already prime seller market conditions. Nova Scotia has been on many people's radar and wish list for years but especially in recent years as the demographics shift. Logically it makes sense from an affordability point of view but I believe there is more to the story. Maybe the golden rule of real estate; 'location, location, location'  should be changed to say 'lifestyle location, lifestyle location, lifestyle location' to better describe what seems to be motivating buyers. And than there is the '18 hour city' concept talked about i.e. in an article by Ainsley Smith on TorontoStoreys.com... 

'... With remote working making it possible for more people to live in the suburbs, the report points to an “18-hour city” trend to pick up across Canada, whether in larger city centres like Toronto and Montreal or in places like Victoria, Quebec City, and Halifax due to accelerated growth. According to Investopedia, 18-hour cities “describe a mid-size city with attractive amenities, higher-than-average population growth, and a lower cost of living and cost of doing business than the biggest urban areas.' 

What's really in our future? As the old saying goes... time will tell. 

As always, please contact me anytime to confidentially and confidently discuss your real estate ideas and potential goals. 

Wishing you all the best for 2021!

~ Michele 

Michele Vyge-Fraser 

Red Door Realty Agent/Associate Broker 

Sources: 

https://creastats.crea.ca/board/nsar?fbclid=IwAR3XtGZakyyor15ow-uZoME60AIGFgJ5lYdfueoxEV_le5OOuxLABptAcAA

https://torontostoreys.com/canadian-real-estate-trends-2021/