In the Wilmington, NC market in September, sales of new homes fell year-over-year, curving down after an increase in August 2011. Sales declined 9.1% from a year earlier to 120. This came after a 41.3% rise year-over-year in August.

In the 12 months ending September 2011, there were 1,292 new home sales, down from an annualized 1,304 in August.

Of 586 total sales, 120 were of new homes. This is better than 19.2% of sales a year earlier. Sales of new and existing homes fell year-over-year in September after also falling in August year-over-year.

In September, the average price of newly sold homes jumped 10.5% year-over-year to $221,731 per unit. This bump is less significant than the 18.0% rise in August year-over-year.

Along with new home prices, there was an increase year-over-year in the average mortgage size on newly sold homes. It increased to $183,024 in September, a 7.7% rise. Average mortgage size gained 26.8% in August 2011 from a year earlier. Of the overall sale price, the percentage that was being financed slipped 2.2 percentage points year-over-year to 82.5% in September 2011. In August 2011, there was a 6.0 percentage point rise 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 climbed from 87.9% in September 2010 to 95.0% of sales in September 2011. At the same time, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units sank to 5.0% of sales from 12.1% of sales.

There was a 15.6% boost year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 2,006 square feet in September 2011. An increase in both the average size and price of newly sold homes was also seen in August 2011 when average size increased 13.6% to 2,152 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales fell in September from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, represented 34.1% of existing sales, lower than 46.0% of sales a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales belonging to foreclosures dipped to 19.3% of sales in September from 29.0% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales declined to 14.8% of sales from 17.1% of sales a year earlier.

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