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Phoenix, AZ - Latest New Home Sales Decline Year-Over-Year in February After Rising Year-Over-Year in January

Posted on: May 07, 2012 09:35:46 AM

In the Phoenix, AZ market, sales of new homes declined year-over-year in February, a shift downward off a rise in January 2012. New home sales saw a decline of 4.7% from the year earlier to 450. In comparison, new home sales in the same month last year saw a 39.9% jump year-over-year in January.

A total of 7,866 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in February, down from 7,888 for the year that ended in January.

Of the total number of sales, new home sales made up 4.4%. As a part of the whole, new home sales were 3.4% a year earlier. Sales of new and existing homes slid year-over-year in February after also falling in January year-over-year.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

For newly sold homes, the average price moved from $243,044 in February 2011 to $243,799 in February 2012. This followed a 5.7% rise in January year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes increased year-over-year along with the average price of new homes. The average mortgage size saw a 2.8% rise year-over-year to $211,581 in February. Average mortgage size rose 5.9% in January 2012 from a year earlier. On average, the percentage of new home sale price that was being financed increased 2.1 percentage points from a year earlier. It moved from 85.8% in January 2011 to 86.0% in February 2011.

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 rose from 84.7% of new sales in February 2011 to 89.1% of sales in February 2012. At the same time, the share of new home sales belonging to attached units fell to 10.9% of sales from 15.3% of sales.

There was an 11.6% decline year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,959 square feet in February 2012. In January, the average size of new homes sold went from 2,225 square feet a year earlier to 2,149 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in February from a year earlier, but remained a burden on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, made up 51.4% of existing sales, lower than 77.5% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures sank to 23.6% in February from 38.7% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slid to 27.7% from 38.8% a year earlier.

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