Sales of new homes declined year-over-year in November in the Iowa City, IA market, moving south after minimal change in October from the year earlier. New home sales dropped to 22, marking a 35.3% decline. This came after sales remained level in the same month last year.

A total of 387 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in November, down from 399 for the year that ended in October.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 17.5%, down from the 21.9% of sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year rise in October, sales of new and existing homes dropped year-over-year in November.

Average price of newly sold homes had a 1.3% decline year-over-year to $211,432 per unit in November. This decline a drop off from the 18.0% drop in October from a year earlier.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes declined year-over-year in contrast to the average price of new homes. It slipped to $181,231 in November, a 3.2% decline. In October 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 2.3% decline from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed fell 1.7 percentage points year-over-year to 85.7% in November 2011. This came after a 15.0 percentage point hike in October from a year earlier.

Sales of attached units, as a percentage of new home sales, have risen from last year while sales of single-family homes have slumped. Attached unit sales increased from 2.9% of all sales in November 2010 to 9.1% of sales in November 2011. Conversely, the share belonging to single-family homes fell to 90.9% of sales from 97.1% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes grew 12.4% year-over-year to 1,526 square feet in November 2011. In October, the average size of new homes sold went from 1,568 square feet a year earlier to 1,360 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales continued to decline from a year earlier in November, but did not look to be a burden on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales accounted for 9.6% of existing home sales, below 23.1% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures dipped to 5.8% in November from 12.4% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slipped to 3.8% from 10.7% a year earlier.

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