Home sales fall in December

Canadian existing-home sales fell 1 percent in December, a national realtors’ group said, citing bad weather. Sales of existing homes in major markets listed on the Canadian Real Estate Association’s Multiple Listing Service fell to a seasonally adjusted C$10 billion ($9.83 billion) in December, from C$10.1 billion in November, the Ottawa-based group said yesterday. Unit sales fell 2.5 percent to 29,156 units, the group said.

The average resale price rose 13.1 percent in December from a year earlier to C$332,836. Unit sales for all of 2007 rose 7.9 percent from the previous year to a record 362,934 units, the Traltor group said.

The MLS service captures about 70 percent of all homes sold in Canada.