Home sales still cooling

OTTAWA—Canada’s residential real estate market continued to cool in February—a trend the industry’s main association says is fallout from tougher borrowing and lending rules brought in last summer.
The Canadian Real Estate Association today also cut its forecast for sales this year after a weak second half of 2012 that saw sales slow more than it expected in some markets.

The association said 2013 sales are expected to total 441,500 units, down 2.9 percent from 454,573 in 2012.
The revised outlook compared with earlier expectations for a two percent drop in sales.
The national average home price is forecast to slip by 0.2 percent to $362,600.