The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 4, edition that Canada's two largest housing markets saw double-digit declines in sales in 2023, as the highest mortgage rates in decades put home ownership out of reach for many would-be buyers. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that there were about 66,000 residential sales in the Greater Toronto Area last year, says the regional real estate board. That is down 12 per cent from 2022, and 46 per cent below the record number of sales seen in 2021. It was a similar story in Metro Vancouver, where residential sales totalled about 26,000 last year, down 10.3 per cent from the year before and 41.5 per cent from 2021. Both markets saw a burst of activity in the spring and early summer after the Bank of Canada announced a "conditional pause" to interest-rate increases. However, home sales dwindled after the BOC resumed monetary-policy tightening in June, raising its benchmark rate two more times to a 22-year high of 5 per cent. Most private-sector economists think the BOC will start lowering interest rates by the middle of this year. Meanwhile, interest-rate swap markets put the odds of at least one-quarter-point rate cut by April at about 75 per cent.