After five straight months of acceleration, January saw Canadian existing home sales crash 14.5% – the biggest drop on record…

Home prices rose 2,3% over the past 12 months, but it appears a sudden close-eye on Chinese buyers has hit the market hard as Toronto home sales crashed a stunning 27% from December (prices down 4.4% YoY) and Vancouver sales down 10.5% MoM (prices up 18.1% YoY).

Canadian existing home sales are down 2.4% YoY.

Must be the weather, right?

This comes less than a week after horrific jobs data struck Canada – thanks to minimum wage-hikes.

The Canadian job market has never lost more part-time jobs – ever – than in January…

As a reminder, The Bank of Canada hiked ‘dovishly’ in January…

The BOC also noted that “while the economic outlook is expected to warrant higher interest rates over time, some continued monetary policy accommodation will likely be needed to keep the economy operating close to potential and inflation on target.”

We suspect that hike-trajectory may slow further.