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Charleston-North Charleston, SC - Freshest New Home Sales Numbers Suggest Market Rise Strengthening.

Posted on: Feb 06, 2012 09:15:47 AM

New home sales increased year-over-year in November in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC market, and the market showed signals of strengthening as the percentage rise turned out sharper than October 2011. There was an 8.4% rise in new home sales from a year earlier. This was after the housing market saw a 4.0% rise year-over-year in October.

A total of 2,345 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in November, up from 2,330 for the year that ended in October.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 25.0%. This is a bump from 21.7% of sales a year earlier. For new and existing homes, sales slipped in November after also declining in October year-over-year.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

The average price of new homes rose year-over-year 4.8% in November to $230,332 per unit. This rise is smaller than the 16.0% lift in October year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes rose year-over-year along with the average price of new homes. The average mortgage size rose to $191,134 in November, marking a 33.2% surge compared with a year earlier. In October 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 12.4% boost year-over-year from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed jumped 17.7 percentage points year-over-year to 83.0% in November 2011. In October 2011, there was a 2.4 percentage point decline in October from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

There has not been much movement in the composition of the market with regard of the types of properties sold. From a year ago, single-family home sales have moved from 97.2% of new home sales to 97.4% of sales while attached units have gone from 2.8% of sales to 2.6% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes fell 22.2% year-over-year to 1,626 square feet in November 2011. The average size of newly sold homes moved from 2,077 square feet in October 2010 to 2,171 square feet in October 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales remained a drag on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales represented 39.2% of existing home sales. In November 2010, they made up 49.1%. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures declined to 23.8% in November from 27.8% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales fell to 15.5% from 21.3% a year earlier.

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