Mortgage 101 – The Effect of Urban Sprawl

Todd Veinotte and Clinton Wilkins discuss the Halifax real estate market with special guest Keith Kenny, a realtor from Century 21 Optimum Realty. They highlight Downtown Dartmouth and Fairview as good investment opportunities, noting the city’s urban development and infrastructure challenges.

Todd Veinotte
Welcome back to Mortgage 101, your guide to home ownership with Clinton Wilkins and me, Todd Veinotte, and our special guest, Keith Kenny, realtor at Century 21 Optimum Realty. Keith, enjoying the chat so far. You stuck around for the second segment, so we did something,

Keith Kenny,
Absolutely!

Clinton Wilkins
We haven’t had anybody run out of the studio, but it’s been close. I mean, you might have had a couple of people over on Young Street dash off before. I don’t know what goes on over there when I’m not there.

Todd Veinotte
No, we know. We generally like to have a lot of fun. A nice atmosphere for our guests. Hope you’re having a good time.

Clinton Wilkins
We appreciate you coming. We’d love to have this market knowledge. We’ve had some great realtors on. All our guests have been good. I’ve had a little fun, and there’s just so much going on right now, I find that real estate is such a hot topic, mortgage lending is such a hot topic, and I’m glad that we are here with you to be a part of the conversation.

Real Estate Investment Opportunities

Todd Veinotte
Keith, when it comes to parts of the community, parts of HRM, are there any places, like, I don’t know, on the outskirts, that are still really a good buy?

Keith Kenny
I think so. I think Dartmouth downtown is still a great investment opportunity.

Clinton Wilkins
I have an office there. So obviously I believe you.

Keith Kenny
Fairview, of course, it’s up and coming. If you look back 20 years ago, nobody wanted to live in the North End, Halifax, and now it’s bumping. Fairview, location-wise, is close to the bridges, 102.

Todd Veinotte
What about North Street? Because I go down North Street, and you get that vibe that it’s still got some grit to it, but you just also get the vibe that that’s going to be a gentrified area.

Keith Kenny
With the corridor zoning and a lot of different zoning changes, you’re going to see some larger buildings going along Agricola, North, Robie Street.

Clinton Wilkins
I mean, they’ve already started, the skyline looks so different than it did even, five years ago.

Keith Kenny
They’re concentrating on those main thoroughfares to increase the density, to add some more vibrance to the city. And of course, unfortunately, it does lose some of the character. But, you know, I guess to improve the infrastructure of Halifax, it’s a bit necessary.

Transit and Infrastructure Challenges

Todd Veinotte
What about transit? And in the reliance on transit, this is very important.

Keith Kenny
The challenge with Halifax is that it was not built to be a large city. It was built a long time ago.

Clinton Wilkins
Even think about the population growth we’ve had the last couple of years.

Keith Kenny
It’s difficult. But you know, let’s just think about the internal infrastructure of Halifax. The more density we can improve on the peninsula itself, and the less urban sprawl, the less we’re going to have the service, whether it’s snow plowing or municipal water, sewers or this kind of thing. So it’s good business, but it is tough for people who live in Halifax to see some of the older structures get removed.

Clinton Wilkins
The sprawl is tough. The one thing that’s going for us here is we have a lot of land, but we need to manage that with the density and the urban sprawl, like it’s very, very costly for the municipality to have it. Just think it wasn’t that long ago when we had floods and fires here in Halifax, but they were devastating for the population, and some of that was impacted by this urban sprawl and lack of infrastructure and services.

Todd Veinotte
Keith, the question that I’ll ask you is, in the Hammonds plans area, to Clinton’s point, they had the fire, and there’s egress and ways to get out in case of emergency. Is this a concern that you hear from some buyers?

Keith Kenny
It is. People want to know if there’s a catastrophe. There are two ways. And a lot of these subdivisions have not been planned for the future. A lot of times, it’s airlocked by wetlands or protected land that you can’t put an infrastructure over. I know when you believe where I live right now, we only have one way in and out, and it’s either owned privately, and you would have to spend an arm and a leg to buy it as a community that’s personally financed, or you would have to try to get some Crown land, or kind of impose on a wetland. So it’s tough.

Todd Veinotte
Yeah, road infrastructure is a challenge. It’s a massive challenge in the city. Let’s face it.

Keith Kenny
It is. But when you’re warned by the water, we’re not a planned city where it’s like a grid, like a Calgary or something like that. We were built a long time ago, and now we’re trying to sort out modern infrastructure with the old road systems.

Clinton Wilkins
Totally, and I think that’s something very hard to balance out. I’m sure when you’re talking to consumers, sometimes they’re coming in and they have a pre-approval from their unbiased mortgage professional, whoever that may be, and maybe us, maybe somebody else. But at least if they’re getting good advice, it’s all good. They’re coming in with their pre-approval, and they don’t know where they want to be. But I’m sure these are things that you know if they’re if someone’s getting a good. Buys from a realtor. These are questions that you should be asked.

Keith Kenny
Oh, certainly. And a lot of times, you will be governed by the price point that you can afford. Of course, if you’re looking at 450, we’re not looking at the peninsula, unfortunately. But often it also has to do with where you work and where you play and where you live and where you know your family is. And often I’ll tell people, hey, look, if you want to live in X community and you work somewhere else. Get up at whatever time you’re planning to go to work, drive that drive and see if you’re okay. Now, there have been some that might be a game changer. It is for some people, and well, now with infrastructure they’ve done through Sackville, the Bedford bypass, there’s even through Burnside, it’s getting better. But you know, Magazine Hill was something that I would tell people now bears road. There are a couple of places where I want people to experience the bottleneck before they commit several $100,000 to find out this is a terrible city.

Clinton Wilkins
I mean, my office is in downtown Dartmouth. We also have an office in downtown Halifax. I couldn’t live kind of outside Peninsula slash downtown Dartmouth, like the commute would just be not doable for me, especially since I love working all the time, and that’s something that would factor into my decision. For me, I think when we’re looking at areas, there are places like Armadale that have such value because you’re so close to downtown, but the prices are not Peninsula prices. I feel like you can get so much more for your money.

Keith Kenny
Oh, you’re right, it’s always about the quality of life. What does a person value? And if we look in Toronto, GTA area, people are driving for two and a half hours of that is traffic. So even getting stuck in traffic in Halifax and taking 35 minutes, it’s nothing.

Clinton Wilkins
But we are just not prepared, like we don’t we’re not used to a commute person. No,

Todd Veinotte
That’s right. I think, though, that people need to be proactive and look at what’s in the offing for building going down the road. Because if you talk about Halifax Shopping Centre and the Armdale area, and that there’s some nice residential areas in there, but if you’re worried about traffic, I mean, you look at the buildings that are going up, the congestion is going to get crazy there and people need to know that. I think, what are your thoughts?

Keith Kenny
Oh, 100% agree. And that’s why talking to people to make sure that if they are living outside of town and they have to commute to town every day, that they’re educated and they can make informed decisions. Because we’re increasing the population and structure. Infrastructure is moving up higher. It’s not going to get any better. We’re not going to be able to put in wide highways. We’re not going to have a fancy subway or something that we can put into the Halifax Peninsula. It’s Lower Sackville. What’s that area like? Lower Sackville is still an incredible value. But again, people were dealing with the Magazine Hill, if they were going through Dartmouth, or dealing with the 102, so things are getting better. The city is trying to move traffic a little bit more efficiently, but ultimately, there’s always going to be a battle, like when you’re restricted by bridges or water.

Clinton Wilkins
I think that’s where you need to balance out the commute and the price of the real estate. I think sometimes people just look at the price point, and they’re not taking these other factors really into consideration. Talking about commute, I cross a bridge almost every day, going to the office, toll-free. Now I have noticed a big difference. My big concern with the tolls out, I thought the bridge would just see a lot more traffic because people don’t have to pay. I can just cross the bridge as many times as I want, but it’s flowing better. I’m surprised. Pleasantly surprised. Let’s just say that this is someone who my entire life, there’s been a toll at the bridge, and I think it’s certainly going to be a bit of a game changer. It’ll be interesting to see once the tolls are out for a bigger period of time, if that’s going to impact how the traffic is.

Todd Veinotte
Tell us about the age cohorts, and who are your clients? Is it all over the map, like your demographics, or what? Do you want to tell us about that?

Keith Kenny
It’s all over the map. I think one of the groups that I deal with a lot is individuals who are looking for something smaller, one level, living. And unfortunately, to their dismay, the Halifax Regional Municipality does not have a reasonably priced community of one-level slab homes, even if it were 650 or below. These folks, their options are, they go to a condo, which they don’t want to do, or move to an apartment, which they won’t don’t want to do. So a lot of them stay in their houses because it’s better than the alternative.

Todd Veinotte
There’s Truro, and there are some communities that are doing those types of developments. Are there not?

Keith Kenny
There is Windsor and Truro. I mean, there are options out there, but HRM itself is very difficult to find. And if you’re finding at one level, it’s 800 plus.

Clinton Wilkins
The demand for that type of home is just so high, and I think that’s where our block is right now, it’s the people who want to downsize who are not selling. I think that’s part of our inventory issue. It’s not just that we don’t have enough builders, building. We don’t have enough sellers, selling.

Keith Kenny
This was the reality, and that’s why I’m excited about the market becoming more balanced. Because if you’re looking to upsize or downsize your house, and I say, hey, Clinton, I could sell. Your house in three days, let’s go. And you’ll say, Well, where am I going to move? I’d be like, I don’t know.

Clinton Wilkins
Yeah, I can’t guarantee that. That’s always the question.

Keith Kenny
If I can find the place, I didn’t know what the price was going to be. So that was why people hesitated, because they didn’t want to have the risk of being homeless. Thus, they just wait.

National Reports and Market Stability

Todd Veinotte
Oftentimes, we see we hear reports from various companies. I won’t mention any, because I don’t want to promote any of the company other than Century 21, but they give out these national reports, and they kind of have an overview of it at each area. Are they sometimes useful, or are they sometimes inaccurate? Or is it Korean data? Like, where is it? Do you find that that’s good information? Because people read that, and people like me on news radio report that type of stuff, and that impacts the market and we’ve quoted it here on our show.

Keith Kenny
Well, nationally, prosperity impacts everybody, their feeling of confidence. If I know the Toronto market is struggling with condo sales, I know Saskatchewan is very strong across the board. There’s not a whole lot of consistency, because if you’re in southern Ontario, you’re probably worried about tariffs more than Nova Scotia, where our main industry is likely government. I mean, we have lots of different businesses, but Nova Scotians don’t feel as stressed about it. Of course, they’re concerned, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to drastically diminish our we don’t have one major industry that you cover 80% of.

Clinton Wilkins
I don’t think we’ve ever really had this big boom, and we haven’t had the bus like we have a more stable environment here, I think, overall. But you know, I think we’re starting to see some trickle effects. Like last month, we talked in our show about, I think, a seafood processing plant that closed in a rural community here in Nova Scotia. And these things do have an impact, but I think by and large, we do have a more stable economy.

Keith Kenny
Yeah, and this would be the same thing within Ottawa, which, again, the main industries, mostly government. But if you move to Alberta, when it’s an oil town, they’re gonna have the best of days and worst of days. Everybody’s a millionaire and everybody’s poor, and then just wait three years and we’re millionaires.

Todd Veinotte
Military moves. Do you do a lot of military clients? I would assume you do?

Military Clients and Relocation

Keith Kenny
I do. I’m a former military myself. I deal with a lot of military the Canadian Forces has reduced a lot of the relocation in the last few years, which I think is a good thing because it was a lot of strain on military families to be moving, it was a lot, and it was a lot of cost paid by the government taxpayers. And why do I want to move people every four years? Because, of course, it’s going to impact your job, your quality of life. You show up at a new job with a whole new group of people, it’s going to take you a while to acclimate So why not keep them longer in those positions?

Clinton Wilkins
I have a lot of military clients who have had three plus postings, and we’ve moved them across the country and moved them back again.

Todd Veinotte
So overall, things are good. In your world?

Keith Kenny
Things are good. The market is strong. It’s balanced. There’s a good, healthy amount of inventory. We’re seeing interest rates come down so people can afford more. The government seems to be paying attention more to what Canadians need, and that’s what we need to have more people being able to afford their first houses, and, you know, get into the market, because right now, that’s the toughest factor.

Todd Veinotte
All right, so if people want to get a hold of Keith Kenny, what’s the best way to get a hold of you?

Keith Kenny
The best way is to drop me an email: Keith.Kenny@Century21.ca. Or you can call me on my cell phone: 902-817-8178.

Todd Veinotte
Are you, like all realtors, 24/7?

Keith Kenny
24/7, 365!

Clinton Wilkins
Don’t be calling me on the weekend, but that’s all right. We’ll still take your email or your form, we always get back to you.

Todd Veinotte
That’s right. Well, Keith, it’s been a real treat having you. You are a great guest, and I’d like to have you on a radio show as well. All right, that’s Keith Kenny. We’ll be back.