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Cities / Halifax

Suburban · Bedford and the West, Halifax

Bedford

Bedford Basin waterfront and a mix of older and newer streets

  • Families with kids
  • Commuters
  • Long-term owners
Everyday walkabilityMost errands need a carSee the breakdown →
Map of Bedford and the neighbouring areas around it Downtown HalifaxSouth EndNorth EndWest EndArmdale and Mainland SouthFairviewRockinghamClayton ParkClayton Park West and ParklandLarry Uteck and Bedford WestHammonds Plains and KingswoodTimberleaLakeside and BeechvilleTantallon and St. Margarets BayLower SackvilleMiddle and Upper SackvilleBeaver Bank and KinsacWaverley and Fall RiverDowntown DartmouthNorth Dartmouth and BurnsideWoodlawnPortland Hills and WestphalWoodside and ImperoyalEastern Passage and Cow BayCole HarbourForest Hills and ColbyLake Echo and Porters LakeEnfield, Oakfield and Grand LakeBedfordMiddle and Upper Sack…Portland Hills and We…Waverley and Fall Riv…Lower SackvilleLakeside and Beechvil…Woodside and ImperoyalNorth Dartmouth and B…Cole Harbour5 km
Bedford in context. Neighbouring areas link to their guides. Boundaries: Statistics Canada (approximate areas).

At a glance

Bedford is a suburban town centre on the Bedford Basin, now part of Halifax, with a waterfront park, older streets of detached houses and newer subdivisions and townhouses. Most households own, and incomes are well above the city median. About 66% of homes are detached and 22% are apartments, 27% of households rent, and owners valued the median home at about $436K in the 2021 census.

Median home value (est.)
$531K*
* est.: 2021 census, indexed to September 2026 · city $423K
Residents
12,420
scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 10,568 at the 2021 census
Households renting
27%
city 43%
Homes that are apartments
22%
city 36%

What the numbers mean

  • Owners valued the median home at $436K in the 2021 census. Indexed to September 2026 prices with the Halifax-Dartmouth MLS® Home Price Index (+22% since then), that is about $531K, 26% above the Halifax median of $423K. It is an estimate: the index tracks the whole region, not this neighbourhood.
  • 27% of households rent, well below the 43% city-wide.
  • 66% of homes are single-detached houses, versus 48% city-wide.

Who lives here

Share of residents by age, scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 10,568 at the 2021 census.

0-1416%
15-197%
20-245%
25-3411%
35-4412%
45-5414%
55-6415%
65+18%

Homes

Share of homes by type, scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 10,568 at the 2021 census.

Single-detached66%
Semi-detached6%
Row house3%
Duplex flat3%
Apartment under 5 storeys22%
Apartment 5+ storeys0%

Estimated property tax1

What owning here costs each year in property tax at the median assessed value. Renters don’t pay it directly, but landlords pass it on.

Median home
$5,950 a year
about $495 a month on a $531K assessment

Upfront closing costs2

Nova Scotia has no provincial land transfer tax; the Halifax Regional Municipality charges a deed transfer tax of 1.5% of the price. Government fees at the median home price: This uses the census home value indexed to September 2026 prices, so treat it as an estimate.

HRM deed transfer tax
$7,970
on $531K

Getting to work by transit3

  • DowntownNo transit within a 1 km walk
  • Dalhousie UniversityNo transit within a 1 km walk
  • Burnside Business ParkNo transit within a 1 km walk
  • AirportNo transit within a 1 km walk

Average weekday morning trip by bus, train or both, including walking and waiting. Driving and cycling times aren't included for Halifax.

Everyday walkability4

Most errands need a car

33 out of 100

How Bedford compares with other blocks in the nine cities, by what is nearby (higher means closer):

Groceries33
Pharmacies29
Parks56
Transit24
Health care37
Libraries45
Primary school21

Schools5

Schools here
4
public
Elementary
3
High school
1
Within 2 km
10
of its edge
  • Basinview Drive Community SchoolHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary
  • Rocky Lake Junior High SchoolHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary
  • Sunnyside Elementary SchoolHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary
  • Bedford and Forsyth Education CentresHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    High school

The school nearest the house may not be the school your child is assigned to. School boards assign a designated school by street address, and a neighbourhood can be split across several or have none inside its boundary. Use your school board’s school locator with the exact address before you rely on a school.

We don’t rate schools: test results are not comparable across provinces, so a school’s quality is something to ask about on a visit.

Halifax doesn't publish building permits by neighbourhood, so we can't chart construction here yet.

Neighbourhood-level crime figures aren't available for Halifax. Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP don't publish open crime counts by neighbourhood that we can compare across areas. Check Statistics Canada's crime tables for municipality-wide trends. Why this is missing.

Sources and notes

  1. Source: Halifax Regional Municipality, 2026/27 tax rates. 2026 residential rate 1.121% of assessed value (the urban general rate of $0.687 per $100 plus local transit, education, climate and provincial charges; suburban and rural areas pay a little less, and Nova Scotia's cap on assessment increases can lower bills for long-time owners), applied to this neighbourhood's median assessment. Homeowners pay tax on the assessed value, not the sale price. Excludes utility bills, local improvement charges, grants and credits, and anything above or below the median. ↩
  2. Source: Government of Nova Scotia, municipal deed transfer tax rates. 2026 rules, applied to this neighbourhood's median census home value, indexed to September 2026 with the MLS® HPI. Registry of Deeds and mortgage registration fees are extra. The rules for first-time buyers and new homes are not included. Legal fees, title insurance, inspection and adjustments are extra. ↩
  3. Transit: schedule-based routing on agency timetables from the Statistics Canada Canadian Public Transit Network Database, for a Tuesday, August 25, 2026 schedule. Door to door from the centre of the neighbourhood to arrive around 9 a.m.: up to a 1 km walk to a stop, waiting, up to four transfers (with short walks between stops) and the walk from the last stop, as the median over arrival times from 8:40 to 9:20. Walking distances are straight lines plus 30%. Delays, fares, accessibility and schedule changes since are not counted. ↩
  4. Source: Statistics Canada, Proximity Measures Database, 2021. For every census block, Statistics Canada measures how close it is to groceries, pharmacies, parks, libraries and primary schools (about a 1 to 1.5 km walk), to transit service in the morning peak, and to health care (a 3 km drive). We rank each block against all populated blocks in the nine cities on this site, average the ranks across the blocks in Bedford weighted by population, and combine them with extra weight on groceries, pharmacies and transit. A score of 50 is typical for these cities; 80 or more is in the top fifth. It is our own summary, not a Walk Score®, and it measures access to places, not how pleasant the streets are. Transit uses published schedules, so a stop that exists but runs rarely scores low. ↩
  5. Schools: Statistics Canada, Open Database of Educational Facilities (version 2.1, built from provincial and municipal open data between 2019 and 2022), matched to the neighbourhood boundary. Schools that opened, closed or moved since then may be wrong or missing, and school boards sometimes change grade levels. Private schools are counted but not listed. Distances are straight-line from the edge of the neighbourhood. ↩

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