Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, PA, NJ, DE, MD Get this data
in your Inbox

You have successfully subscribed to the local housing data e-newsletter for .

If you wish to receive monthly updates for other market areas please subscribe to new markets using our expanded form.

Philadelphia, PA - Freshest New Home Sales Numbers Give Hints Market Decrease is Slowing

Posted on: May 07, 2012 09:35:37 AM

New home sales slid year-over-year in January in the Philadelphia, PA market, but the percentage drop, which was less than that of December 2011, gave hints that the market may be evening out. New home sales saw a drop of 18.5% from the year earlier to 211. In comparison, new home sales in the same month last year saw a 24.1% drop year-over-year in December.

A total of 4,032 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in January, down from 4,080 for the year that ended in December.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 6.2%, less than the 7.9% of sales a year earlier. After dropping in December from a year earlier, sales of new and existing homes increased year-over-year in January.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

The average price of new homes dipped by 9.0% year-over-year to $397,832 per unit in January. This decline is larger than the 6.3% decline in December from a year earlier.

Average mortgage size on new homes saw a decline year-over-year in contrast to prices of new homes. The average mortgage size declined to $305,434 in January, marking a 4.8% decline compared with last year. It went from $303,825 to $304,971 from December 2010 to December 2011. For new home sales, the percentage of the sale price that was being financed rose 3.4 percentage points year-over-year to 76.8% in January 2012. This was another rise after December 2011 when there was a 5.2 percentage point rise from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

The percentage of new home sales belonging to single-family homes has risen from last year while the portion of new home sales belonging to attached units has dropped. Single-family home sales climbed from 49.4% of new sales in January 2011 to 59.7% of sales in January 2012. At the same time, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units dropped to 40.3% of sales from 50.6% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes fell 30.5% year-over-year to 1,642 square feet in January 2012.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales stayed steady in January from a year earlier, but remained a drag on the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales made up 31.1% of sales, relatively unmoved from a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures rose to 17.7% in January from 13.7% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slipped to 13.5% from 17.1% a year earlier.

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