In September, the Allentown, PA market saw a fall year-over-year in new home sales, but the percentage drop, which was less severe than in August 2011, seemed to be suggesting market improvement. There was a 14.0% drop in new home sales from a year earlier. This came on the heels of a 22.2% decline year-over-year in August.

A total of 504 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in September, down from 512 for the year that ended in August.

As a percentage of overall housing sales, new home sales accounted for 8.4% of overall housing sales. They represented 8.7% of sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year increase in August, sales of new and existing homes fell year-over-year in September.

The average price of new homes dipped by 1.1% year-over-year to $285,034 per unit in September. This decline a drop off from the 6.1% decline in August from a year earlier.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size declined year-over-year in contrast to average price of new homes. It fell 9.7% in September from a year earlier to $198,180. In August 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 13.9% decline from a year earlier. For new home sales, the percentage of the sale price that was being financed slipped 6.6 percentage points year-over-year to 69.5% in September 2011.

Sales of attached units, as a percentage of new home sales, have grown from last year while sales of single-family homes have fallen. Attached unit sales jumped from 42.1% of all sales in September 2010 to 73.5% of sales in September 2011. Meanwhile, single-family home sales as a percentage of all new home sales dropped to 26.5% of sales from 57.9% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size increased 17.3% year-over-year to 2,602 square feet in September 2011. The average size of newly sold homes moved from 2,333 square feet in August 2010 to 2,190 square feet in August 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales fell in September from a year earlier, but stayed a drag on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales made up 25.1% of existing home sales, below 39.3% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures slid to 11.5% in September from 25.5% a year earlier and REO sales moved from 13.8% of existing home sales in September 2010 to 13.6% in September 2011.

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