OTTAWA — The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales continued to cool in July as they fell on a month-over-month basis for a fourth-consecutive month.

The association says home sales for July were down 3.5 per cent compared with June.

Sales for July were down 28 per cent from their peak in March.

The move lower came as the number of newly listed homes dropped by 8.8 per cent in July compared with June.

Compared with a year ago, sales in July were down 15.2 per cent from the record for the month set last year.

However, CREA says last month still marked the second-best July on record.