A For Sale sign is displayed outside a home in Bedford in this file photo. Nova Scotia home prices have fallen slightly as rising interest rates affect borrowing power. - Ryan Taplin / FileNova Scotia’s housing market is showing signs of cooling off after the mad rush that followed the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s because while the numbers are trending downward from 2022 and 2021, they remain much higher than before we entered the pandemic.That’s 4.6 per cent less than last February but 56.5 per cent higher than in February 2020, which with all the water that has passed under the bridge now seems so very long ago.On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada is widely expected to hold its key lending rate at 4.5 per cent.
So that means to buy an average $400,000 Nova Scotian home, you’d need $20,000 for your 5 per cent down-payment and then $2,264 a month on a 25-year mortgage at 5.25 per cent interest rate . Many of those who bought into those inflated markets at historically low interest rates last year are seeing the value of their asset drop significantly while their costs of borrowing are going up .