New home sales fell year-over-year in September in the Albuquerque, NM market, and the percentage drop that was harsher than August 2011 gave implication of worsening market conditions. New home sales saw a 26.5% decline from a year earlier to 114. This was after the housing market saw a 7.3% decline year-over-year in August.
A total of 1,229 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in September, down from 1,270 for the year that ended in August.
Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 11.6%, down from the 13.0% of sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year decline in August, sales of new and existing homes also sank year-over-year in September.
Pricing and Mortgage Trends
Average price of newly sold homes had a 1.0% rise year-over-year to $195,302 per unit in September. This rise is smaller than the 2.9% rise in August year-over-year.
The average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a rise year-over-year along with new home prices. In September 2011, there was a 1.4% rise in the average mortgage size, reaching $171,977. Average mortgage size increased 1.2% in August 2011 from a year earlier. For newly sold homes, the percentage of sale price being financed moved from 87.7% of average price to 88.1% from a year earlier. In August 2011, the figure saw a 1.5 percentage point decline from the year earlier.
Other Market Trends
As a share of new home sales, single-family home sales have climbed from last year while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. The share of new home sales belonging to single-family homes grew from 98.7% in September 2010 to all of sales in September 2011. Conversely, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units slid to no part of sales from 1.3% of sales.
Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in September from a year earlier, but stayed a drag on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, made up 26.1% of existing sales, lower than 41.1% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures fell to 10.8% in September from 21.0% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales fell to 15.4% from 20.1% a year earlier.
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