There was an increase in new home sales in the Houston, TX market in October year-over-year, but with a less pronounced percentage lift than September 2011, there are signals of market stabilization. New home sales saw a 15.2% rise from a year earlier to 1,372. This was after the housing market saw a 17.6% hike year-over-year in September.

A total of 16,688 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in October, up from 16,507 for the year that ended in September.

Of 7,457 total sales, 1,372 were of new homes. This is an increase on a percentage basis, as new home sales were 14.7% of total sales a year ago. Following a year-over-year rise in September, sales of new and existing homes slipped year-over-year in October.

The average per-unit price of new homes increased in October to $234,631, up by 1.0% from a year earlier. This is a swing north from the 2.3% decline in September from a year earlier.

For newly sold homes, average mortgage size moved from $230,786 in October 2010 to $229,788 in October 2011. Average mortgage size dipped 4.9% in September 2011 from a year earlier.

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 98.6% of new home sales to 99.0% of sales while attached units have gone from 1.4% of sales to 1.0% of sales.

For all new homes sold, the average unit size fell 2.1% year-over-year to 2,676 square feet in October 2011. For newly sold homes, an average size decline contrasting with an average price rise was also seen in September 2011 when the average size of newly sold homes slipped 9.6% to 2,461 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) sales declined in October from a year earlier, but stayed a drag on the market. Foreclosures and REO sales, taken together, made up 34.2% of existing sales, lower than 47.1% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home sales involving foreclosures dipped to 19.7% in October from 24.4% a year earlier while REO sales as a percentage of existing home sales declined to 14.6% from 22.7% a year earlier.

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