In the San Francisco, CA market in October, new home sales declined year-over-year, but compared with September 2011, the percentage drop was less harsh, suggesting that the market may be leveling out. Sales declined 31.8% from a year earlier to 197. This was after the housing market saw a 33.6% decline year-over-year in September.

A total of 2,773 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, down from 2,865 for the year that ended in September.

A year earlier, new home sales accounted for 6.4% of overall housing sales and the percentage declined to 4.2% of sales in October 2011. Following a year-over-year increase in September, sales of new and existing homes also rose year-over-year in October.

Average price of newly sold homes saw a 2.0% decline year-over-year in October to $591,791 per unit. This decline is larger than the 1.9% decline in September from a year earlier.

In October 2011, average mortgage size on newly sold homes moved from $452,884 to $454,599 from October 2010. Average mortgage size fell 1.2% in September 2011 from a year earlier. From a year earlier, the percentage of new home sale price being financed saw a 1.8 percentage point rise. It went from 72.7% in September 2010 to 73.2% in September 2011.

There has not been much movement in the composition of the market with regard of the types of properties sold. From a year ago, single-family home sales have moved from 50.9% of new home sales to 51.8% of sales while attached units have gone from 49.1% of sales to 48.2% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size slid 14.3% year-over-year to 1,858 square feet in October 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales stayed a drag on the market. Together, foreclosures plus REO sales made up 41.7% of existing home sales. They represented 51.7% in October 2010. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures slipped to 22.8% in October from 28.9% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales dipped to 19.0% from 22.8% a year earlier.

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