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New Home Sales and Prices Both Increase in San Francisco According to Recent Data

Posted on: May 06, 2013 07:32:58 AM

New home closings in the San Francisco, CA market increased year-over-year in February, but as the percentage rose less than January 2013, the market seemed to show signs of leveling. There was a 29.0% boost in new home closings from a year earlier. This was after the housing market saw a 72.8% rise year-over-year in January.

A total of 3,951 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in February, up from 3,893 for the year that ended in January.

Out of all housing closings, new home closings made up 7.5%. This is up from the 4.8% of closings a year earlier. Following a year-over-year decline in January, closings of new and existing homes also slid year-over-year in February.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

For newly sold homes, the average price increased 7.0% year-over-year in February to $573,854 per unit. This rise is an improvement over the 5.6% rise in January year-over-year.

Along with new home prices, there was an increase year-over-year in the average mortgage size on newly sold homes. The average mortgage size rose to $446,441 in February, marking a 10.3% rise compared with a year earlier. Average mortgage size rose 3.5% in January 2013 from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed increased 2.3 percentage points year-over-year to 77.8% in February 2013. In January 2013, there was a 1.5 percentage point decline in January from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

As a share of new home closings, single-family home closings have climbed from last year while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. The share of new home closings belonging to single-family homes increased from 46.5% in February 2012 to 60.9% of closings in February 2013. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home closings declined to 39.1% of closings from 53.5% of closings.

There was a 19.1% decline year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,527 square feet in February 2013. For newly sold homes, an average size decline contrasting with an average price rise was also seen in January 2013 when the average size of newly sold homes declined 5.3% to 1,562 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) closings decreased in February from a year earlier, but stayed a drag on the market. Out of all existing home closings, foreclosures combined with REO closings represented 28.7% of closings, below 49.3% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home closings involving foreclosures fell to 10.1% in February from 24.1% a year earlier while REO closings as a percentage of existing home closings fell to 18.7% from 25.2% a year earlier.

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