{"id":64235,"date":"2026-05-06T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=64235"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:30:00","slug":"housing-market-report-more-inventory-more-cautious-buyers-shaping-spring-housing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=64235","title":{"rendered":"Housing Market Report: More inventory, more cautious buyers shaping spring housing market"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ENFIELD:<\/strong> A surge in housing inventory and more cautious buyers are reshaping the spring real estate market across the Halifax Regional Municipality and East Hants, according to local realtor Don McCooeye of the McCooeye Group with Royal LePage Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCooeye said the second quarter of 2026 is showing signs of a market that is balancing out after several years of intense competition and limited supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s significantly more inventory than in the last few years,\u201d McCooeye said, noting residential listings across HRM were up 31 per cent year-over-year as of late April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, monthly sales activity has slowed, with average days on market climbing to 46 days, compared to 39 days at the same time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the increase in available homes, prices have remained stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six-month average sale price across HRM sits at approximately $601,433, up 2.4 per cent from last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In East Hants, the average sale price dipped slightly to $516,857, down 1.3 per cent year-over year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCooeye said that shift reflects changing buyer behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen pricing gets more competitive in HRM proper, we see the outskirts get more attention,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, as there\u2019s more opportunity for buyers in HRM, they\u2019re not looking outside as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that this year\u2019s spring market also arrived later than usual, potentially due to the long winter, but activity has picked up sharply in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the last three weeks, it has gotten incredibly busy,\u201d McCooeye said. \u201cThe phones have been ringing a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In East Hants specifically, 49 new listings hit the market in April across all property types, while pending sales climbed 17.2 per cent year-over-year to 34.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCooeye said today\u2019s buyers are taking more time and doing more research before making decisions, a stark contrast from the fast-paced market conditions of recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fear of missing out is gone,\u201d he said. \u201cBuyers are willing to wait until they see something they like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means sellers need to price homes accurately from the start, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf your strategy is going to be throwing a number out there and hoping someone negotiates you down, buyers are just going to bypass you,\u201d McCooeye explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help homes stand out, McCooeye said his team has increasingly been encouraging sellers to complete pre-inspections, septic inspections, and water testing before listing properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the extra transparency is helping homes sell faster in a more competitive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of our recent listings had the septic pre-inspected and water tests completed, and we had an offer in five days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCooeye also pointed to broader affordability concerns impacting buyer confidence, including rising grocery costs, higher fuel prices, and increasing utility rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople just don\u2019t have the consumer confidence to spend money on large ticket items,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, he believes conditions currently favour buyers more than they have in several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is still technically a seller\u2019s market based on inventory levels, but it doesn\u2019t feel like that,\u201d McCooeye said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a buyer, you\u2019ve got a good selection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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ENFIELD: A surge in housing inventory and more cautious buyers are reshaping the spring real estate market across the Halifax Regional Municipality and East Hants, according to local realtor Don McCooeye of the McCooeye Group with Royal LePage Atlantic. McCooeye said the second quarter of 2026 is showing signs of a market that is balancing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2921,965],"tags":[10,3334,196,986,390,10666,10932,1637,8258,121,48,9893],"class_list":["post-64235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adverts","category-east-hants","tag-beaver-bank","tag-don-mccooeye","tag-east-hants","tag-elmsdale","tag-enfield","tag-home-sales","tag-house-sales","tag-housing","tag-housing-market","tag-hrm","tag-n-s","tag-the-mccooeye-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}