New home sales in the Lancaster, PA market slid year-over-year in September, and the percentage fall that was steeper than August 2011 gave implication of worsening market conditions. Sales declined 58.0% from a year earlier to 21. This came on the heels of a 25.0% fall year-over-year in August.

In the 12 months ending September 2011, there were 418 new home sales, down from an annualized 447 in August.

New home sales as a percentage of overall housing sales fell to 4.6% from 9.3% of sales a year earlier. Following a year-over-year rise in August, sales of new and existing homes dropped year-over-year in September.

The average price of new homes increased year-over-year 1.6% in September to $247,180 per unit. This rise is a drop off from the 12.5% gain in August year-over-year.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size saw a rise year-over-year along with new home prices. In September 2011, the average mortgage size was $227,608, a 12.4% surge from a year earlier. It went from $172,579 to $173,339 from August 2010 to August 2011. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed rose 8.9 percentage points year-over-year to 92.1% in September 2011. In August 2011, there was an 8.4 percentage point decline in August from a year earlier.

As a share of new home sales, single-family home sales have climbed from last while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. The share of new home sales belonging to single-family homes increased from 72.0% in September 2010 to 95.2% of sales in September 2011. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home sales declined to 4.8% of sales from 28.0% of sales.

There was a 21.2% hike year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 2,424 square feet in September 2011. The average size of newly sold homes moved from 2,103 square feet in August 2010 to 1,962 square feet in August 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales continued to decline from a year earlier in September and did not appear to be dragging the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, accounted for 15.3% of existing sales, lower than 31.0% of sales a year earlier. From a year earlier, foreclosures fell to 8.4% of existing home sales in September after a figure of 22.4% of sales in September 2010 while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales fell to 6.8% of sales from 8.6% 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.