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Halifax Housing Market: Prices, Sales and Trends | August 2026

Updated

Data as of August 2026 Released September 2026 · NSAR

The Nova Scotia Association of REALTORS (NSAR) runs one MLS® System for the whole province and reports its monthly results region by region, with Halifax-Dartmouth as the region that takes in the capital. This report uses NSAR’s August 2026 figures, released in September 2026. For Halifax-Dartmouth the board gives the number of residential sales and their average price; its MLS® Home Price Index benchmark, listings and months of inventory cover Nova Scotia as a whole and sit on the Nova Scotia housing market page. Why an average and a benchmark can tell different stories is explained once on the Canadian housing market overview.

Halifax-Dartmouth made up 44% of all Nova Scotia sales that month, computed from NSAR’s regional and provincial totals.

Halifax home prices, August 2026

Homes sold in Halifax-Dartmouth averaged $592,675 (-1.9% on a year earlier), 27% above the provincial $467,585.

From January through August 2026 the region’s year-to-date average was $606,031 (0.1%).

Sales and market balance

Residential sales numbered 441 (-7.0% year over year). Nova Scotia held 5.7 months of inventory, below CREA’s 6.4-month buyer’s-market mark (reading it).

Income needed to buy in Halifax

Qualifying for a mortgage on Halifax-Dartmouth’s average sale takes household earnings near $134,700 when the buyer puts down the $34,268 minimum, or $117,400 at one-fifth down. The figures use the stress-test rate and CMHC’s 39% ceiling on housing costs as a share of income (the calculation).

Neighbourhoods and the buying process

NSAR’s regional table stops at Halifax-Dartmouth, so there are no board prices for individual neighbourhoods. The peninsula, mainland Halifax, Dartmouth and the outer communities are compared in where to live in Halifax, and the steps and costs of a purchase in buying a home in Halifax.

Deed transfer tax

Halifax Regional Municipality’s deed transfer tax is 1.5%, a rate each Nova Scotia municipality sets for itself (Nova Scotia calculator; land transfer tax by province).

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Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 24, 2026 and October 6, 2026. How we check facts.