There was an increase in closings of new homes in the
Charleston, SC market in September year-over-year, but there were hints the
market may be leveling out with a percentage lift shallower than August 2013.
Closings gained 12.0% from a year earlier to 270. In comparison, new home
closings in the same month last year saw a 17.7% jump year-over-year in August.
A total of 2,661 new homes were sold during the 12 months
that ended in September, up from 2,632 for the year that ended in August.
Of the total number of closings, new home closings made up
21.0%. They made up 20.5% of closings a year earlier. Following a
year-over-year increase in August, closings of new and existing homes also
increased year-over-year in September.
Pricing and Mortgage Trends
Average price of newly sold homes had a 12.4% hike
year-over-year to $260,541 per unit in September. This boost is higher than the
11.2% lift in August year-over-year.
For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size saw a gain
year-over-year along with new home prices. In September 2013, the average
mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 12.2% boost from a year earlier. In
August 2013, average mortgage size on newly sold homes saw a 4.5% lift
year-over-year 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 gained
from 98.8% in September 2012 to all of closings in September 2013. At the same
time, the share of new home closings belonging to attached units slid to no part
of closings from 1.2% of closings.
There was a 7.4% drop year-over-year in the average unit
size of newly sold homes to 2,141 square feet in September 2013. This fall was
opposite the price bump, a pattern also seen in August 2013 when the average
size of newly sold homes declined 21.7% to 1,890 square feet. The average size
of newly sold homes moved from 2,413 square feet in August 2012 to 1,890 square
feet in August 2013.
Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) closings continued
to decline from a year earlier in September, but did not appear to be dragging
the market. Together, foreclosures plus REO closings represented 24.4% of
existing home closings, down from 42.1% a year earlier. The percentage of
existing home closings involving foreclosures sank to 11.4% in September from
25.2% a year earlier while REO closings as a percentage of existing home
closings slid to 13.0% from 16.9% a year earlier.
Source: Housing Intelligence
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