Sales of new homes dropped year-over-year in October in the Lancaster, PA market, but the percentage decline was less than that of September 2011, hinting that the market may be strengthening. New home sales saw a 47.8% decline from a year earlier to 24 after sales dropped 62.0% in September from the year earlier.

A total of 395 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, down from 417 for the year that ended in September.

New home sales accounted for 6.8% of overall housing sales. This is a fall 11.9% of sales a year earlier. For new and existing homes, sales declined in October after also declining in September year-over-year.

The average price of new homes increased year-over-year in October to $276,985 per unit, a rise of 19.0%. This bump is higher than the 1.6% rise in September year-over-year.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size saw a decline year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. In October 2011, there was a 1.4% decline in the average mortgage size on new homes to $185,980. In September 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 12.4% hike year-over-year from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed slid 13.9 percentage points year-over-year to 67.1% in October 2011. This was a swing downward after an 8.8 percentage point rise in September from a year earlier.

Sales of attached units, as a percentage of new home sales, have increased from last year while sales of single-family homes have declined. The share of new home sales belonging to attached units rose from 28.3% of sales in October 2010 to 54.2% of sales in October 2011. Meanwhile, single-family home sales as a percentage of all new home sales fell to 45.8% of sales from 71.7% of sales.

There was a move in the average unit size of newly sold homes from 2,172 square feet in October 2010 to 2,191 square feet in October 2011. In September 2011, the average size of newly sold homes rose 21.2% from the year earlier.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales did not appear to be dragging the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales made up 10.0% of sales. They represented 8.0% in October 2010. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures went from 0.9% in October 2010 to 0.6% in October 2011 and REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales increased to 9.4% from 7.1%.

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