Residential Construction Increased in May

The housing market in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) continued to exhibit stength in the month on May as total housing starts, new home prices and re-sale prices all posted increases. There are 303 total housing starts in the HRM last month, a significant increase over the 126 starts recorded in May of 2009. The increase in total housing starts was due in large part to an increased level of apartment consturction as there were 187 apartment starts in May compared to just 34 in May of last year. Single starts were up over 19 per cent last month to 80 starts. On a year-to-date basis, there have been 992 total starts in the HRM though the first five months of the year compared to 484 starts a year ago as most struction types have recorded strong year-to-date growth. Single starts have increased from 237 in 2009 to 376 this year, an increase of 59 per cent. In the condominium market, there were 98 starts year-to-date compared to seven a year ago. The largest year-over-year increase was recorded in apartment starts where after two years of reduced activity, 379 units have broken ground year-to-date compared to 124 a year ago. The year-to-date average price to the 368 new single-detached home sales this year in $343,623, which is six per cent higher than the average new single-detached home price (of the 422 sales) last year of $323,700. The increase in average price is attributed to a decline in the number of new home sales in below average priced submarkets (including Dartmouth City and halifax County East) and more stable new home sales in above average priced submarkets (including Halifax City, Bedford-Hammonds Plains and Halifax County Southwest).