New home sales rose year-over-year in July in the Pittsburgh, PA market, moving north after a fall in June 2011. Sales climbed 10.2% from a year earlier to 141, compared with a 44.8% drop in June from the year earlier.

In the 12 months ending July 2011, there were 1,585 new home sales, up from an annualized 1,572 in June.

New home sales represented 5.9% of overall housing sales. This is a rise from 4.4% of sales a year earlier. For new and existing homes, sales slid in July after also declining in June year-over-year.

Average price of newly sold homes saw an 11.6% hike year-over-year in July to $299,233 per unit. This lift is less significant than the 12.6% boost in June year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on new homes moved north year-over-year along with new home prices. Average mortgage size increased 7.7% to $245,330 in July from a year earlier. In June 2011, average mortgage size increased 10.1% from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed slipped 2.9 percentage points year-over-year to 82.0% in July 2011.

Single-family homes accounted for a greater percentage of new home sales than last year. Single-family home sales grew from 83.6% of new sales in July 2010 to 95.7% of sales in July 2011. At the same time, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units fell to 4.3% of sales from 16.4% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes declined 42.0% year-over-year to 1,452 square feet in July 2011. For newly sold homes, an average size decline contrasting with an average price surge was also seen in June 2011 when average size of newly sold homes sank 12.2% to 1,999 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales did not look to be a burden on the market. Together, foreclosures plus REO sales accounted for 20.2% of existing home sales. They made up 22.2% of sales in July 2010. The percentage of existing home sales belonging to foreclosures went from 12.3% in July 2010 to 12.8% of sales in July 2011 and REO sales dipped to 7.4% of existing sales from 9.8% of sales a year earlier.

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