Halifax ranked ‘extreme’ for unaffordability, worst of Canadian cities scored: index report

The Halifax skyline is seen from Dartmouth, N.S., on July 17, 2026. (Andrea Jerrett/CTV News Atlantic)

Halifax’s cost of living has been ranked as “extreme” in an index ranking cities’ typical monthly income, rent prices, and costs of essential food.

The Urban Stress Index (USI) uses data on the distribution of employment income across Canada and the National Rent Report from rentals.ca to divvy out its scores.

The index ranks Halifax at 76.35 – the highest among the Canadian cities on its table – beating Toronto at 73.12 and Vancouver at 73.45.

The USI calls Halifax, “one of the clearest examples of an urban system that has become structurally overextended.”

The index points to housing as a primary shock for residents, with a one-bedroom rental unit in Halifax costing roughly $2,029.

It says rent absorbs around 57.8 per cent of a typical monthly income, which is $3,509.

Essential food costs take up an additional 18.5 per cent according to the index, costing an average of $650 per month.

That leaves Haligonians with roughly 23.6 per cent, or $830, left of their monthly income for daily expenses and savings.

“Halifax is therefore not just ‘expensive for Atlantic Canada.’ It has become an affordability outlier in national terms because the city’s income base is too small to absorb a housing market that has repriced so aggressively,” reads the USI website.

“Food then compounds that stress instead of softening it.”

More to come...

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page