Nova Scotia’s housing crisis: Why it’s getting tougher to keep a roof over your head
This crisis has been brewing for five decades.
Halifax’s population grew at a sleepy if not stagnant pace. Apart from a brief construction boom in the 1970s, the housing market matched it.
But things changed quickly in 2016. Six thousand people moved into Halifax. That was more than had arrived in the city in the previous five years, combined.
These weren’t just people moving from small town Nova Scotia. Almost all of Halifax’s new residents were coming from other provinces or outside the country. Immigration was suddenly the highest it had been in years.
There were other factors at play: a spike in foreign workers and droves of international students enrolled at Halifax universities, mainly from China and India. The downturn in the oil industry forced people back home and baby boomers were moving east to retire in Nova Scotia. …[Read More]