Canadian home resales rise for 6th straight month

* Home resales in July top 50,000 year on year, a record

* Avg price skewed by rebound in priciest markets

TORONTO Aug 14 (Reuters) - Sales of existing homes in Canada in July posted their biggest year-over-year gain in two years and rose for a sixth straight month, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Friday.

In a first look at third-quarter sales, the industry group said a total of 50,270 homes changed hands in July, up 18.2 percent from the same month last year.

It was the first time that sales topped 50,000 units in July, and the number was 3.9 percent above the previous record for the month, set in 2007.

The report is the latest evidence that consumers are venturing back into the home market, encouraged by low mortgage rates and signs that the worst of the recession is over.

CREA said demand is rebounding sharply in some of Canada's most expensive markets and has distorted the national average price upward. The average resale price in July rose 7.6 percent from a year earlier to C$326,832 ($299,846).

($1=$1.09 Canadian) (Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Peter Galloway)