Sales of new homes sank year-over-year in September in the Bangor, ME market, dropping after staying level in August. Sales stood at four in September after being six a year earlier and remaining unchanged at five in August from a year earlier.

In the 12 months ending September 2011, there were 40 new home sales, down from an annualized 42 in August.

New home sales were four out of the 51 total sales, a move on a percentage basis from six of 70 a year earlier. Following a year-over-year increase in August, sales of new and existing homes dropped year-over-year in September.

The average price of new homes rose to $181,691 from last year's $128,879. This followed a 58.9% lift in August year-over-year.

Average mortgage size on new homes increased to $159,585 from $91,267 last year. Average mortage size on new homes went from $180,250 in August 2010 to $323,093 in August 2011. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed climbed 17.0 percentage points year-over-year to 87.8% in September 2011.

There has been no change in the composition of the market with regard to the types of properties sold. From a year ago, single-family homes have accounted for all of new home sales.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales continued to drop from a year earlier in September and did not appear to be dragging the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales accounted for 12.8% of sales, below 26.6% of sales a year earlier. Foreclosures slipped to 8.5% of existing home sales in September from 10.9% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slid to 4.3% of sales from 15.6% of sales a year earlier.

Please refer to the ABOUT THIS MSA tab to learn more about geographic coverage and data availability in this market area.