Sales of new homes in the Montgomery, AL market dipped year-over-year in September, a shift downward off a boost in August 2011. There was an 8.6% decline in new home sales from a year earlier. This came on the heels of a 53.6% rise year-over-year in August.

A total of 295 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in September, down from 298 for the year that ended in August.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 13.1%. This is an increase on a percentage basis, as new home sales were 10.7% of total sales a year ago. After rising year-over-year in August, sales of new and existing homes fell year-over-year in September.

Average price of newly sold homes had a 17.4% rise year-over-year to $267,925 per unit in September. This gain is an improvement over the 7.0% rise in August year-over-year.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a hike year-over-year along with new home prices. In September 2011, there was a 12.0% lift in the average mortgage size, reaching $198,567. Average mortgage size rose 5.6% in August 2011 from a year earlier. On average, the percentage of new home sale price being financed saw a 3.5 percentage point decline from a year earlier. It went from 69.9% in August 2010 to 69.0% in August 2011.

There was no change in the composition of the new-home market with regard to the types of properties sold in September 2011. Single-family home sales have represented all of new home sales while attached unit sales have accounted for no part of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size jumped 21.1% year-over-year to 2,041 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 the average size grew 13.3% to 2,078 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales remained a drag on the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales represented 51.4% of sales. In September 2010, they accounted for 57.5%. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures slipped to 31.1% in September from 35.3% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales declined to 20.3% from 22.3% a year earlier.

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