The Atlantic City, NJ market saw a rise in new home sales in October year-over-year, snapping back from a decline in September 2011. Sales rose 29.4% from a year earlier to 22, relative to a 3.2% decline in September from the year earlier.

A total of 230 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, up from 225 for the year that ended in September.

New home sales accounted for 10.5% of overall housing sales. This marks a rise from 6.8% of total sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year rise in September, sales of new and existing homes dropped year-over-year in October.

In October, the average price for new homes was $266,946, an 11.4% fall from last year. This decline is a swing down from a 25.1% surge in September year-over-year.

Average mortgage size on new homes sank year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. In October 2011, the average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 16.7% fall from a year earlier. Average mortgage size climbed 12.1% in September 2011 from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed fell 4.8 percentage points year-over-year to 74.9% in October 2011.

Sales of attached units, as a percentage of new home sales, have grown from last year while sales of single-family homes have slumped. The share of new home sales belonging to attached units grew from 5.9% of sales in October 2010 to 18.2% of sales in October 2011. Meanwhile, single-family home sales as a percentage of all new home sales declined to 81.8% of sales from 94.1% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size dropped 41.7% year-over-year to 1,716 square feet in October 2011. A decrease in both the average size and price of newly sold homes was also seen in September 2011 when the average size jumped 30.4% to 1,562 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales did not appear to be dragging the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales represented 12.3% of existing home sales. In October 2010, they accounted for 21.4%. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures declined to 5.9% in October from 11.1% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slipped to 6.4% from 10.3% a year earlier.

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