Small-town Nova Scotia housing inflation far outstrips Halifax, Canadian figures

Inflation in Nova Scotia continues to exceed the national average, driven by rising housing and food prices.

While there was much attention last week to the national inflation rate dipping down to 3.1 per cent year over year for October, Nova Scotia’s rate was 3.2.

When moderating fuel prices, down 0.4 per cent year over year, are subtracted, the picture is worse.

Rent was up 14.6 per cent in Nova Scotia (8.6 per cent nationally) and food prices were up 6.3 per cent (5.6 per cent nationally), driven by cooking oils, preserved fruit and beef.

“The idea of finding a place to live is farther out of reach now than it was 12 years ago,” said Russ Sanche, executive director of the Portal Youth Outreach Association.

“Even if you have money, you can’t find a place to live anyway.”

Portal Youth helps young people in the Annapolis Valley with housing, employment and connections to other support services.

Sanche is on the front lines of a housing crisis that numbers show has spread outside Halifax Regional Municipality. While the growth in the cost of homes slowed to 2.6 per cent in Halifax and Dartmouth, it was up 21.3 per cent in the Annapolis Valley year over year, 19.5 per cent in Cape Breton, 17 per cent in the Highlands region and 12.4 per cent in northern Nova Scotia.

While the youths who sit on the couch in Sanche’s office aren’t looking to buy a house, the availability and cost of the rentals they seek is pushed hard by the rising cost to purchase houses and buildings.

People are moving to small-town and rural Nova Scotia a lot faster than new homes are being built, squeezing down on the market until those nearest the edge of affordability are pushed out.

Matthew Dauphinee, president of the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors, explained that some of the pressure is coming in part from people being priced out of Halifax and other centres.

The average house sold in Halifax-Darmouth in October went for $531,129, nearly $200,000 more than the average house in the Annapolis Valley ($353,631), double the average home in Cape Breton ($259,303) or northern Nova Scotia ($277,321)

Combine that with more people being able to work from home and you have a migration.

“The price points outside Halifax are very attractive to people from across the country,” said Dauphinee.

“You have proximity to the ocean. We’re the warmest province on average.”

The pressure on the housing market is taking a toll on those least able to afford it.

Four years ago, young people in New Minas or Kentville could find a two-bedroom apartment for about $1,000 a month and split the cost, said Sanche. Now one of those apartments, on the rare occasions they can be found (Kentville had a vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent in 2022), would go for $1,500 to 2,000 a month.

“We have youth who are rough living, going from couch to couch, which can be extremely unsafe, depending on how well they know the people they are staying with,” said Sanche.
“We’ve had kids living in tents, sheds, garages, barns.”

The young people who show up in Sanche’s office are, in a way, in a better situation. He’s able to set them up with federal and provincial government housing support subsidies.

“We were working on this hard five years ago, so when the crunch hit we had some programs rolling and funding,” said Sanche.

“Working with the (Department of Community Services) has been very collaborative – they’ve been great for saying ‘What do you need? How can we help?’” said Sanche.

But for those working in the lower-wage jobs upon which our society’s functioning relies, the market is getting crueller, whether it be an apartment, a bag of mixed vegetables or a pound of ground beef.

 “Seniors, families, single unattached people, it’s across the whole lifespan,” said Alisha Christie, a member of the group Homeless No More,which advocates on behalf of front-line nonprofits working between Digby and West Hants.

“Our sector is operating in a state of crisis. The folks supporting individuals are in a state of crisis even as they’re trying to support people who are themselves in crisis. We need to recognize how much we’re calling (non-profit service providers) to do.”