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Washington, DC - Latest Figures for New Home Sales Suggest Market Fall is Subsiding

Posted on: Feb 06, 2012 09:45:55 AM

In the Washington, DC market in October, new home sales fell year-over-year, but the percentage decline was an improvement from September 2011, suggesting the market may be evening out. Sales fell 9.5% from a year earlier to 716, compared with an 18.9% drop in September from the year earlier.

A total of 8,977 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, down from 9,052 for the year that ended in September.

As a percentage of overall housing sales, new home sales made up 13.6%. This marks a rise from 12.2% of total sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year decline in September, sales of new and existing homes also slid year-over-year in October.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

From October 2010 to October 2011, the average price of newly sold homes went from $446,402 to $447,094. This came after a 4.0% rise in September year-over-year.

In October 2011, average mortgage size on new homes went from $372,893 in October 2010 to $369,229 in October 2011. It went from $369,330 to $371,965 from September 2010 to September 2011. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed went from 83.5% of average price to 82.6% from a year earlier. In September 2011, the figure slipped 2.6 percentage points from the year earlier.

Other Market Trends

The share of new home sales made up by attached units has risen while the share belonging to single-family homes has fallen. Attached unit sales rose from 43.6% of all sales in October 2010 to 47.3% of sales in October 2011. At the same time, the share belonging to single-family homes declined to 52.7% of sales from 56.4% of sales.

There was a 46.9% decline year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,473 square feet in October 2011. In September, the average size of new homes sold went from 2,774 square feet a year earlier to 1,961 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales continued to fall from a year earlier in October, but did not look to be a burden on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, represented 23.9% of existing sales, lower than 42.4% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures sank to 8.8% in October from 20.1% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales fell to 15.1% from 22.3% a year earlier.

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