Canadian home sales fell 13% in April to the lowest in almost two years with some buyers spooked by high prices and rising interest rates, the national realtors group said Monday. Declines across 80% of markets were led by Toronto, the Canadian Real Estate Association said. Even with the sales drop, price growth slowed moderately. CREA's price index that lines up sales of similar properties rose 24% from a year ago, close to a record pace of almost 30% set two months earlier.

“Following a record-breaking couple of years, housing markets in many parts of Canada have cooled off pretty sharply over the last two months, in line with a jump in interest rates and buyer fatigue,” said CREA Chair Jill Oudil. The typical 5-year fixed mortgage rate has jumped 1pp in the last month and banks are stress testing clients against rates over 6%. The BOC is expected to hike 50bps at its June 1 meeting, and Canada's bank regulator has told MNI housing should be resilient to that rise. (MNI INTERVIEW2: Canadian Banks Resilient To Rate Jump, Omicron)