The Sacramento, CA market saw a drop in new home sales year-over-year in November, a downhill move after a rise in October 2011. Sales declined 12.3% from a year earlier to 135, relative to a 6.6% rise in October from the year earlier.

A total of 1,643 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in November, down from 1,662 for the year that ended in October.

Of the total number of sales, new home sales made up 3.8%. They accounted for 4.6% of sales a year earlier. Sales of new and existing homes increased year-over-year in November following a decline in October year-over-year.

In November, the average price of newly sold homes declined 9.6% year-over-year to $288,951 per unit. This decline is larger than the 1.3% decline in October from a year earlier.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes sank year-over-year in contrast to the average price of new homes. In November 2011, average mortgage size on new homes sold was $222,371, down 13.3% from a year earlier. In October 2011, average mortgage size increased 12.7% from a year earlier. For new home sales, the percentage of the sale price that was being financed fell 3.3 percentage points year-over-year to 77.0% in November 2011. This came after a 9.8 percentage point rise in October from a year earlier.

Single-family homes accounted for a greater percentage of new home sales than last year. The share of new home sales belonging to single-family homes grew from 94.2% in November 2010 to 97.8% of sales in November 2011. Conversely, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units dropped to 2.2% of sales from 5.8% of sales.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales fell in November from a year earlier, but stayed a drag on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, made up 53.2% of existing sales, lower than 65.8% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures slipped to 26.8% in November from 29.5% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales dipped to 26.4% from 36.3% a year earlier.

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