Housing sales across the province continued to cool in the month of August, according to the latest numbers from the British Columbia Real Estate Association.

Those numbers indicate sales were down 26 per cent compared to the same month a year ago, and the average residential price of just under $670,000 was down 1.2 per cent from a year ago.

However, the association’s chief economist, Cameron Muir, says the numbers also indicate the downturn in housing demand induced by the tightening of the federal government’s mortgage stress-test rules is now largely behind us.

He says the B.C. housing market is evolving along the same path blazed by Ontario and Alberta, where the initial shock of the mortgage stress-test is already dissipating and home sales are increasing.