New home sales sank year-over-year in September in the Bradenton, FL market, and there were signals of worsening market conditions as the percentage decline was harsher than August 2011. New home sales saw a drop of 55.7% from the year earlier to 66. This followed a 34.4% drop year-over-year in August.

In the 12 months ending September 2011, there were 1,179 new home sales, down from an annualized 1,262 in August.

Compared to a year earlier, new home sales reflected 5.0% of overall housing sales, down from 7.9% last year. For new and existing homes, sales fell in September after also declining in August year-over-year.

In September, the average price of newly sold homes declined year-over-year to $224,628 per unit, marking a 1.6% decline from the year-earlier figure. This decline is higher than the 11.6% drop in August from a year earlier.

Average mortgage size on new homes fell year-over-year along with new home prices. It slipped 9.2% in September from a year earlier, reaching $150,533. In August 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 5.0% decline from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed declined 5.6 percentage points year-over-year to 67.0% in September 2011. In August 2011, there was a 5.2 percentage point rise from a year earlier.

The percentage of new home sales belonging to single-family homes has risen from last year while the portion of new home sales belonging to attached units has dropped. The share of new home sales belonging to single-family homes jumped from 64.4% in September 2010 to 77.3% of sales in September 2011. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home sales dropped to 22.7% of sales from 35.6% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size fell 7.9% year-over-year to 1,613 square feet in September 2011. A decline was also seen in August 2011 when average size of new homes sold dipped 8.1% to 1,755 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in September from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Together, foreclosures plus REO sales represented 35.2% of existing home sales, down from 64.2% of sales a year earlier. Foreclosures declined to 19.7% of existing home sales in September from 31.7% a year earlier while REO sales fell to 15.5% of existing sales from 32.5% of sales a year earlier.

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