In the San Antonio, TX market in October, new home sales dipped year-over-year, but the market seemed to be signaling improvement with a percentage decline less harsh than in September 2011. New home sales saw a decline of 3.5% from the year earlier to 526. This came on the heels of an 18.3% drop year-over-year in September.

A total of 6,657 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, down from 6,676 for the year that ended in September.

As a percentage of overall housing sales, new home sales accounted for 19.9%. This is better than the 17.9% of sales a year earlier. For new and existing homes, sales declined in October after also declining in September year-over-year.

In October, the average value of new homes saw a 3.7% rise year-over-year as it grew to $220,572 per unit. This rise is smaller than the 7.8% rise in September year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes rose year-over-year along with the average price of new homes. It increased 4.9% in October from a year earlier to $200,343. In September 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 9.9% rise year-over-year from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed rose 1.1 percentage points year-over-year to 90.8% in October 2011. This was another rise after September 2011 when there was a 1.8 percentage point rise from a year earlier.

There has been little change in the composition of the market with regard to the types of properties sold. From a year ago, single-family home sales have moved from 99.6% of new home sales to all of sales while attached units have gone from 0.4% of sales to no part of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes fell 4.9% year-over-year to 2,193 square feet in October 2011. This decline was opposite the price rise, a pattern also seen in September 2011 when the average size of newly sold homes dropped 17.7% to 1,868 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales decreased in October from a year earlier, but remained a burden on the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales made up 26.4% of sales, below 39.6% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures declined to 15.0% in October from 19.7% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales dipped to 11.4% from 19.9% a year earlier.

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