Recent Numbers Show Prices of New Homes Increase in New York, Sales Decrease | North Salem Real Estate

New home closings in the New York, NY market dropped year-over-year in July, and the market seemed to be weakening with a percentage fall steeper than in June 2014. New home closings saw a drop of 29.4% from the year earlier to 456. This came on the heels of a 21.9% decline year-over-year in June.

A total of 6,057 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in July, down from 6,247 for the year that ended in June.

New home closings made up 3.3% of overall housing closings. A year earlier, new home closings represented 4.2% of total closings. For new and existing homes, closings dropped in July after also declining in June year-over-year.

Pricing and Mortgage Trends

Average price of newly sold homes had a 3.1% lift year-over-year to $629,340 per unit in July. This hike compares to a 4.9% drop in June from a year earlier.

For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size increased year-over-year along with new home prices. The average mortgage size rose to $450,513 in July, marking a 7.5% surge compared with a year earlier. In June 2014, average mortgage size fell 6.7% from a year earlier.

Other Market Trends

As a share of new home closings, single-family home closings have climbed from last year while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. The share of new home closings belonging to single-family homes rose from 40.9% in July 2013 to 43.6% of closings in July 2014. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home closings slid to 56.4% of closings from 59.1% of closings.

The average unit size of newly sold homes sank 41.1% year-over-year to 1,417 square feet in July 2014. In June, the average size of new homes sold went from 2,189 square feet a year earlier to 1,717 square feet.

Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) closings rose in July from a year earlier and did not look to be a burden on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO closings represented 10.4% of existing home closings, above 9.0% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home closings involving foreclosures went from 5.6% in July 2013 to 6.1% in July 2014 and REO closings moved from 3.4% of existing home closings in July 2013 to 4.3% in July 2014.