Overall housing market activity remained subdued in the month of May in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) as there were fewer new home starts and existing homes sales compared to last year.  However, average price growth in the resale market remains positive for the year despit the reduced level of activity.

Over a year-to-date basis, there have been 484 total starts in HRM compared to 771 in the January to May time frame last year representing a decline of 37 per cent.  Single-detached starts for the year trail last year's levels by 44.5 per cent with 237 starts compared to 427 last year.  Relative strength that has been seen in the semi-detached and row unit segments of the market is beginning to show signs of weakness as semi-detached starts are flat for they year with 46 units while row units starts are 17 per cent lower after five months of the year compared to last year.

The year-to-date average price of the 422 new home sales in HRM this year is $323,700, which is 6.3 per cent lower than the avearage new home price of the 380 sales last year of 345,583.  The decline in price is due to the fact that there has been an increase in new home sales in Dartmouth City and Halifax County East which have average new home prices of $241,690 and $238,690 respectively while there has been a decrease in new home sales in submarkets that hae average selling prices in excess of $350,000, namely Halifax City, Bedford-Hammonds Plains and Fall River-Beaver Bank.  The end result is a lower overall average new home price for HRM through five months.  However, all submarkets with the exception of Halifax City, where the average price has declined by only 0.7 per cent.  The average year-to-date new home price in Bedford-Hammonds Plains has increased by 17 per cent reaching $465,812 while the average new home price in Halifax County East has increased by 28 per cent to $238,095.

To viewing entire article go to www.chmc.ca look for "Housing Now-Halifax CMA. Date Released: June 2009".