HALIFAX - Two years after moving to Halifax from Ireland, Sarah and Nick Moriarty began house hunting.

After losing multiple bidding wars, the couple offered $50,000 over the list price on a house – and included a handwritten letter by their seven-year-old daughter who was excited to plant vegetables in the garden – before they finally sealed a deal.

“It was really frustrating and stressful and we almost gave up,” said Sarah Moriarty in an interview from the family’s new home in Bedford, a suburban community of Halifax.

“I think the letter did pull on the sellers’ heartstrings because they had multiple offers and I don’t think ours was the highest.”

The real estate frenzy that has long been the norm in Toronto and Vancouver has hit the East Coast, with cities like Halifax at the epicentre of the region’s frenetic housing market.

Home prices in the Nova Scotia capital have reached record heights, with selling tactics like under-listing a house to attract multiple offers, bidding wars, and people buying houses sight unseen becoming increasingly common.

“I went to viewings where I was double-booked with another potential buyer or there were lineups outside,” said recent first-time homebuyer Dylan Ryan. “I bid on probably 15 houses and I wasn’t throwing out lowball offers, I was offering above asking.”

The 28-year-old eventually paid $308,500 for a semi-detached house in the Spryfield neighbourhood, almost 20 per cent above the $259,000 asking price.

“I really started to wonder if I would ever get a house,” he said. “I felt desperate.”

It’s a situation being fuelled by a mix of historically low interest rates on mortgages, a lack of inventory and a growing population.

“Young families have started looking at Nova Scotia as a possible home to raise their children,” said Donna Malone, president of the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors.

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘We decided we didn’t want to raise our kids in a condo in downtown Toronto.’”

Indeed, Nova Scotia has been held up as a beacon of hope to pandemic-weary Canadians, with its low COVID-19 infection rates, relatively affordable real estate and easy beach and wilderness access.

An online campaign launched by Tourism Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Business Inc. in late 2020 encouraged people who work from home to consider moving to the province, buoying a multi-year trend of positive interprovincial migration.