Recent Figures Show New Home Sales and Prices Fall in Columbia
Posted on: May 06, 2013 07:08:10 AM
Closings of new homes slid year-over-year in January in the Columbia, SC market, but with a percentage drop less steep than December 2012, there are suggestions the market may be stabilizing. New home closings saw a drop of 41.6% from the year earlier to 73. This followed a 61.8% fall year-over-year in December.
A total of 1,674 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in January, down from 1,726 for the year that ended in December.
New home closings represented 26.4% of overall housing closings. This is better than the 19.9% of closings a year earlier. Following a year-over-year decline in December, closings of new and existing homes also sank year-over-year in January.
Pricing and Mortgage Trends
In January, there was a 9.1% decline year-over-year in the average per-unit price of newly sold homes, settling at $188,897. This decline is larger than the 5.7% decline in December from a year earlier.
Average mortgage size on new homes declined year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. Average mortgage size slipped 9.8% to $170,765 in January from a year earlier. In December 2012, average mortgage size dropped 11.8% from a year earlier. On aveage, the percentage of new home sale price that was being financed went from 91.1% of average price to 90.4% from a year earlier. In December 2012, the figure saw a 6.1 percentage point decline from the year earlier.
Recent Figures Show New Home Sales and Prices Fall in Columbia
Posted on: May 06, 2013 07:08:10 AM
Closings of new homes slid year-over-year in January in the Columbia, SC market, but with a percentage drop less steep than December 2012, there are suggestions the market may be stabilizing. New home closings saw a drop of 41.6% from the year earlier to 73. This followed a 61.8% fall year-over-year in December.
A total of 1,674 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in January, down from 1,726 for the year that ended in December.
New home closings represented 26.4% of overall housing closings. This is better than the 19.9% of closings a year earlier. Following a year-over-year decline in December, closings of new and existing homes also sank year-over-year in January.
Pricing and Mortgage Trends
In January, there was a 9.1% decline year-over-year in the average per-unit price of newly sold homes, settling at $188,897. This decline is larger than the 5.7% decline in December from a year earlier.
Average mortgage size on new homes declined year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. Average mortgage size slipped 9.8% to $170,765 in January from a year earlier. In December 2012, average mortgage size dropped 11.8% from a year earlier. On aveage, the percentage of new home sale price that was being financed went from 91.1% of average price to 90.4% from a year earlier. In December 2012, the figure saw a 6.1 percentage point decline from the 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 closings have moved from 99.2% of new home closings to all of closings while attached units have gone from 0.8% of closings to no part of closings.
There was an 11.8% fall year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,572 square feet in January 2013.
Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) closings fell in January from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO closings accounted for 42.6% of existing home closings, below 57.3% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home closings involving foreclosures slid to 20.1% in January from 31.7% a year earlier while REO closings as a percentage of existing home closings dipped to 22.5% from 25.6% a year earlier.
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Source: Housing Intelligence