In September, sales of new homes in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC market gained year-over-year, but the percentage edged up less than August 2011, suggesting the market may be leveling out. New home sales climbed by 19.6% in September 2011 from a year earlier, after sales saw a 22.2% boost in August from the year earlier.

In the 12 months ending September 2011, there were 2,316 new home sales, up from an annualized 2,277 in August.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales represented 26.7%. This is a boost from 23.6% of sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year increase in August, sales of new and existing homes also increased year-over-year in September.

The average price of new homes went from $225,829 in September 2010 to $226,852 in September 2011. This followed a move from $226,876 per unit to $228,450 from September 2009 to August 2011.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size rose year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. It increased 4.0% in September from a year earlier to $175,809. Average mortgage size slipped 8.5% in August 2011 from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed rose 2.7 percentage points year-over-year to 77.5% in September 2011. In August 2011, there was an 8.2 percentage point decline in August from a year earlier.

Sales of attached units, as a percentage of new home sales, have climbed from last year while sales of single-family homes have dipped. Attached unit sales climbed from 2.0% of all sales in September 2010 to 4.2% of sales in September 2011. At the same time, the share belonging to single-family homes slid to 95.8% of sales from 98.0% of sales.

There was a 13.0% drop year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,768 square feet in September 2011. The average size of newly sold homes moved from 2,199 square feet in August 2010 to 1,923 square feet in August 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in September from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales made up 33.1% of existing home sales, below 47.0% of sales a year earlier. From a year earlier, foreclosures dipped to 15.9% of existing home sales in September after a figure of 20.7% of sales in September 2010 while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales declined to 17.2% of sales from 26.3% of sales a year earlier.

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