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Anchorage, AK - Newest Figures for New Home Sales Suggest Market Decline is Subsiding

Posted on: May 06, 2012 09:11:23 AM

New home sales dropped year-over-year in February in the Anchorage, AK market, but the percentage decline, which was less steep than in January 2012, seemed to be hinting at market improvement. New home sales saw a decline of 25.8% from the year earlier to 23. In comparison, new home sales in the same month last year saw a 37.5% fall year-over-year in January.

A total of 422 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in February, down from 430 for the year that ended in January.

Moving south from a year earlier, new home sales in February 2012 made up 5.0% of overall housing sales, while the year-ago figure was 6.9%. Sales of new and existing homes increased year-over-year in February following a decline in January year-over-year.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

For newly sold homes, there was a 20.2% surge year-over-year of average price in February, moving to $303,234. This is an about-face from the 4.7% decline in January from a year earlier.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size saw a gain year-over-year along with new home prices. Average mortgage size increased 26.9% to $276,512 in February from a year earlier. In January 2012, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 6.3% decline from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed rose 4.8 percentage points year-over-year to 91.2% in February 2012. This came after a 1.5 percentage point decline in January 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 jumped from 71.0% in February 2011 to 95.7% of sales in February 2012. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home sales sank to 4.3% of sales from 29.0% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size rose 33.4% year-over-year to 2,059 square feet in February 2012. The rise was sharper than the bump in average price of newly sold homes, making the movement simliar to January 2012 when the average size climbed 31.1% to 1,502 square feet from a year earlier.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales remained level in February from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Combined, foreclosures plue REO sales made up 30.3% of existing home sales, relatively unchanged from a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures rose to 15.5% in February from 14.1% a year earlier and REO sales moved from 15.5% of existing home sales in February 2011 to 14.8% in February 2012.

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