Housing sales in the first quarter of this year set a record in the country's largest 25 markets, according to new data from the Canadian Real Estate Association... The Ottawa-based group said sales over the first three months of the year were up 5.5% from the same period a year ago. However, the monthly record was set in January and sales have declined now for two consecutive months, reports the National Post. Most forecasts continue to say the Canadian housing market is in no danger of replicating the slowdown in the United States, where credit worries and bulging foreclosures Foreclosures.com said yesterday the number of U.S. homes entering foreclosure in the first quarter doubled from a year earlier as property prices stagnated and owners struggled to refinance mortgages. "This is a much different market here," said Peter Norman, an economist with Toronto-based Altus Clayton.