In October, sales of new homes increased year-over-year in the Denver, CO market, picking up from a drop in September 2011. Sales rose 7.8% from a year earlier to 291, compared with a 10.9% decline in September from the year earlier.

A total of 3,498 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, up from 3,477 for the year that ended in September.

Of the total number of sales, new home sales made up 6.9%. A year earlier, new home sales represented 6.6% of total sales. Following a year-over-year increase in September, sales of new and existing homes also rose year-over-year in October.

For newly sold homes, the average price declined 12.5% year-over-year in October to $358,412 per unit. This decline is larger than the 2.5% decline in September from a year earlier.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a drop year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. Average mortgage size slid 14.4% to $286,741 in October from a year earlier. In September 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 4.4% rise year-over-year from a year earlier. For new home sales, the percentage of the sale price that was being financed fell 1.8 percentage points year-over-year to 80.0% in October 2011. In September 2011, there was a 5.2 percentage point rise from a year earlier.

As a share of new home sales, single-family home sales have climbed from last year while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. Single-family home sales jumped from 75.2% of new sales in October 2010 to 79.0% of sales in October 2011. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home sales dropped to 21.0% of sales from 24.8% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size fell 29.0% year-over-year to 1,693 square feet in October 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in October from a year earlier, but remained a burden on the market. Together, foreclosures plus REO sales made up 41.6% of existing home sales, down from 56.5% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures dipped to 22.5% in October from 31.4% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slipped to 19.1% from 25.1% a year earlier.

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