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Portland, OR - Freshest New Home Sales Increase Year-Over-Year in February After Falling Year-Over-Year in January

Posted on: May 07, 2012 09:37:01 AM

In the Portland, OR market, new home sales increased year-over-year in February, snapping back from a drop in January 2012. New home sales rose by 2.8% in February 2012 from a year earlier, after sales saw a 17.8% drop in January from the year earlier.

A total of 2,634 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in February, up from 2,629 for the year that ended in January.

Out of all housing sales, new home sales made up 8.2%. A year earlier, new home sales represented 8.6% of total sales. After staying stable in January from a year earlier, sales of new and existing homes rose in February.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

In February, the average price for new home sales was $282,961, a 2.5% decline from last year. This decline a drop off from the 6.9% decline in January from a year earlier.

The average mortgage size on newly sold homes increased year-over-year in contrast to the average price of new homes. The average mortgage size rose to $248,180 in February, marking a 5.9% rise compared with a year earlier. In January 2012, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 5.0% decline from a year earlier. The overall percentage of sale price that was being financed rose 6.9 percentage points year-over-year to 87.7% in February 2012. This was another rise after January 2012 when there was a 1.7 percentage point rise from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

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 increased from 80.9% in February 2011 to 83.1% of sales in February 2012. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home sales dropped to 16.9% of sales from 19.1% of sales.

There was a 10.4% decline year-over-year in the average unit size of newly sold homes to 1,787 square feet in February 2012.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales remained a burden on the market. Out of all existing home sales, foreclosures combined with REO sales made up 43.0% of sales. They represented 52.6% in February 2011. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures declined to 16.8% in February from 21.8% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales slipped to 26.2% from 30.8% a year earlier.

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