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Pittsburgh, PA - Freshest New Home Sales Numbers Give Hints Market Fall is Slowing

Posted on: Feb 06, 2012 09:35:27 AM

In the Pittsburgh, PA market in October, sales of new homes dipped year-over-year, but with a percentage decline not as harsh as September 2011, there are signals that the market may be evening out. New home sales saw an 8.8% decline from a year earlier to 134. This followed a 14.1% decline year-over-year in September.

A total of 1,507 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, down from 1,520 for the year that ended in September.

New home sales made up 7.0% of overall housing sales. This is a rise from 5.2% of sales a year earlier. Sales of new and existing homes sank year-over-year in October after also falling in September year-over-year.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

In October, the average price of newly sold homes grew 15.0% year-over-year to $302,893 per unit. This gain is an improvement over the 1.9% rise in September year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on new homes moved north year-over-year along with new home prices. In October 2011, average mortgage size increased 8.7% from a year earlier to $242,686. In September 2011, average mortgage size climbed 19.6% from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed declined 4.6 percentage points year-over-year to 80.1% in October 2011. This came after a 13.4 percentage point bump in September from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

Single-family homes accounted for a greater percentage of new home sales than last year. The share of new home sales belonging to single-family homes rose from 78.9% in October 2010 to 97.8% of sales in October 2011. At the same time, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units slid to 2.2% of sales from 21.1% of sales.

There was a more than twofold boost year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 4,953 square feet in October 2011. An increase was also seen in September 2011 when the average size of new homes sold jumped 29.0% to 3,060 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales did not appear to be dragging the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales represented 16.8% of existing home sales. In October 2010, they accounted for 19.5%. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures fell to 7.7% in October from 10.8% a year earlier and REO sales moved from 8.7% of existing home sales in October 2010 to 9.1% in October 2011.

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