Sales were down in all provinces except Alberta, where the number of homes sold edged up 0.2%. Transactions were also down compared to last year's record levels, falling 14.3% from August 2007's 43,332 units sold to last month's 37,118 units sold.

CREA reported that year-over-year declines in sales stood out in Canada's most active markets. Lower activity in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan region, Vancouver Island, Victoria, Calgary, and Toronto contributed significantly to the yearly decline in national sales activity, the association said.

"These days, realtors in Canada face a lot of questions about the real estate market, real estate price bubbles, and the value of a home. That's because we are at the end of an unusually active period in Canadian real estate - 2007 was a record year for many of the things we use to monitor the real estate market, including the average (Multiple Listing Service) residential price," said CREA president Calvin Lindberg. "We must remember that all markets go through cycles, and remember that the national housing market is actually made up of different communities. Real estate markets are local, and every community, and every area, is different in terms of trends and pricing."

The national average existing home sale price was down 4.6% to $290,347 in August 2008 from $304,253 in August 2007.

Houses also sat on the market longer last month, CREA reported, noting sales took more time in such markets as Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

"We expect the trends that are currently in place to continue as price increases diminish," said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump. "We expect new listings will ease and that will stabilize the market even as sales activity eases back from its record pace of last year.

Listings in August totalled 74,993 units. New listings eased in every province except Saskatchewan, CREA said.

By Sean McKibbon, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Nancy Girgis, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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