In November, sales of new homes rose year-over-year in the Memphis, TN market, but the percentage rise was less pronounced than October 2011, indicating the market may be evening out. New home sales saw a rise of 3.4% from the year earlier to 92. This followed a 21.3% boost year-over-year in October.

A total of 1,044 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in November, up from 1,041 for the year that ended in October.

Sales of new and existing homes increased year-over-year in November after also rising in October year-over-year.

Average price of newly sold homes had a 2.8% decline year-over-year to $217,158 per unit in November. This is a swing down from a 4.6% rise in October year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes moved south year-over-year in contrast to new home prices. It declined to $182,543 in November, a 10.0% drop. Average mortgage size declined 4.7% in October 2011 from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed slipped 6.7 percentage points year-over-year to 84.1% in November 2011.

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 96.6% of new home sales to 96.7% of sales while attached units have gone from 3.4% of sales to 3.3% of sales.

The average unit size of newly sold homes sank 15.1% year-over-year to 2,409 square feet in November 2011. The average size of newly sold homes moved from 2,483 square feet in October 2010 to 2,524 square feet in October 2011.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales remained a burden on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO sales represented 58.0% of existing home sales. In November 2010, they accounted for 61.9%. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures rose to 31.1% in November from 25.6% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales fell to 27.0% from 36.3% a year earlier.

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