In August, there was a decline year-over-year in new home sales in the Pittsburgh, PA market, a downhill move after a rise in July 2011. New home sales declined by 6.6% in August 2011 from a year earlier, after sales saw an 8.7% rise in July from the year earlier.

In the 12 months ending August 2011, there were 1,555 new home sales, down from an annualized 1,565 in July.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales accounted for 5.9%. A year ago, new home sales made up 5.0%. Following a year-over-year decline in July, sales of new and existing homes also sank year-over-year in August.

The average price of new homes was $325,166 per unit in August, up 26.7%from a year earlier. This bump is higher than the 13.0% surge in July year-over-year.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size saw a boost year-over-year along with new home prices. In August 2011, the average mortgage size was $237,253, a 15.5% lift from a year earlier. Average mortgage size increased 9.0% in July 2011 from a year earlier. For new home sales, the percentage of the sale price that was being financed fell 7.1 percentage points year-over-year to 73.0% in August 2011.

As a share of new home sales, single-family home sales have climbed from last while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. Single-family home sales gained from 83.4% of new sales in August 2010 to 98.6% of sales in August 2011. Conversely, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units declined to 1.4% of sales from 16.6% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes dropped 46.4% year-over-year to 1,322 square feet in August 2011. For newly sold homes, an average size fall contrasting with an average price bump was also seen in July 2011 when average size of newly sold homes sank 43.4% to 1,416 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales did not look to be a burden on the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales accounted for 15.3% of sales. They made up 19.0% of sales in August 2010. The percentage of existing home sales belonging to foreclosures declined to 6.2% of sales in August from 9.3% a year earlier and REO sales went from 9.7% of existing sales in August 2010 to 9.0% of sales in August 2011.

Please refer to the ABOUT THIS MSA tab to learn more about geographic coverage and data availability in this market area.