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May 17 (Bloomberg) — Canadian existing home sales fell 2.6 percent in April from March on a seasonally adjusted basis, as the country’s housing market cools from record sales at the end of last year, a realtor group said.

The number of homes sold dropped to 42,078 in April, from 43,199 units the month before, the Canadian Real Estate Association said in a statement from Ottawa today. Sales between January and April were 63 percent higher than during the same period a year ago and the average price for a home rose 12 percent to C$344,968 ($333,000) from April 2009, the group said.

“Next month will mark the passage of one year since the national average price rebounded from the recessionary trough to return to the pre-recession peak, so the rise in the national average price is expected to be more subdued next month,” CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump said in the statement.

The housing market will slow “through the remainder of 2010 and well into 2011” as mortgage rates increase, the Bank of Canada predicted in April. The average rate for a five-year mortgage was 6.25 percent in the last week of April, compared with 5.85 percent a month earlier.

Sellers listed 99,901 new homes in April, bringing the total of homes on the market to 236,397, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier, CREA also said.