According to an article posted in the Financial Post: "Housing sales were down 30% in July from a year ago, and the Canadian Real Estate Association is blaming the drop on the new harmonized sales tax in Ontario and British Columbia."

Article: The Ottawa-based group, which represents 100 real estate boards across the country, said July sales plunged 6.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous month, a decline “almost entirely the result of fewer sales in British Columbia and Ontario,” where the HST went into effect on July 1.

The slowdown had been expected as consumers rushed to buy homes ahead of the July 1 implementation in those provinces. The HST only applies to services used in purchasing and selling an existing home, such as real estate commission, and not the actual sale price.

Phil Soper, chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., said the HST, combined with tougher mortgage rules, expectations of higher interest rates and the bounceback from the recession, drove the market earlier this year. “You take those four things and add them together and you get a highly front-ended year, which we forecast,” he said.