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Cities / Halifax

Newer suburb · Cole Harbour and the Eastern Shore, Halifax

Forest Hills and Colby

Detached-home subdivisions on Dartmouth's eastern edge

  • Families with kids
  • Long-term owners
  • Quiet streets
Everyday walkabilityCar-dependentSee the breakdown →
Map of Forest Hills and Colby and the neighbouring areas around it Downtown HalifaxSouth EndNorth EndWest EndArmdale and Mainland SouthFairviewRockinghamSpryfieldBedfordLower SackvilleBeaver Bank and KinsacWaverley and Fall RiverDowntown DartmouthNorth Dartmouth and BurnsideWoodlawnPortland Hills and WestphalWoodside and ImperoyalEastern Passage and Cow BayCole HarbourLawrencetown and ChezzetcookLake Echo and Porters LakeMusquodoboit HarbourEnfield, Oakfield and Grand LakeMusquodoboit ValleyForest Hills and ColbyLake Echo and Porters…Lawrencetown and Chez…Portland Hills and We…Eastern Passage and C…Woodside and Imperoyal5 km
Forest Hills and Colby in context. Neighbouring areas link to their guides. Boundaries: Statistics Canada (approximate areas).

At a glance

Forest Hills and Colby are suburban communities at the eastern edge of Dartmouth, mostly detached houses in newer subdivisions with schools and parks. Almost everyone owns, and incomes are high. About 96% of homes are detached and 1% are apartments, 7% of households rent, and owners valued the median home at about $325K in the 2021 census.

Median home value (est.)
$395K*
* est.: 2021 census, indexed to September 2026 · city $423K
Residents
5,840
scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 4,971 at the 2021 census
Households renting
7%
city 43%
Homes that are apartments
1%
city 36%

What the numbers mean

  • Owners valued the median home at $325K in the 2021 census. Indexed to September 2026 prices with the Halifax-Dartmouth MLS® Home Price Index (+22% since then), that is about $395K, close to the Halifax median of $423K. It is an estimate: the index tracks the whole region, not this neighbourhood.
  • 7% of households rent, well below the 43% city-wide. Most people here own and stay a while.
  • 96% 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 4,971 at the 2021 census.

0-1415%
15-195%
20-244%
25-3411%
35-4411%
45-5416%
55-6419%
65+19%

Homes

Share of homes by type, scaled estimate for mid-2025, up from 4,971 at the 2021 census.

Single-detached98%
Semi-detached1%
Row house0%
Duplex flat1%
Apartment under 5 storeys1%
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
$4,430 a year
about $370 a month on a $395K 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
$5,930
on $395K

Getting to work by transit3

  • Downtown1 h 27 min
  • Dalhousie University1 h 37 min
  • Burnside Business Park1 h 47 min
  • 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

Car-dependent

13 out of 100

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

Groceries9
Pharmacies20
Parks13
Transit9
Health care1
Libraries32
Primary school12

Schools5

Schools here
3
public
Elementary
3
High school
0
Within 2 km
14
of its edge
  • Bell Park Academic CentreHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary
  • Nelson Whynder Elementary SchoolHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary
  • Ross Road SchoolHalifax Regional Centre for Education
    Elementary

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 Forest Hills and Colby 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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