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It’s OK to pass ‘go’ — the housing market isn’t looking so bleak in San Antonio Print E-mail
Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Read the national news, and you’ll get the impression that the entire U.S. real estate market is in the toilet. The burst of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis have led to falling real estate prices and an increasing number of foreclosed homes. But not everywhere.

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New homes, like these in the Rogers Ranch area off of Loop 1604, are sprouting up all over San Antonio’s North Side, despite the housing crisis that is taking down the real estate market in other states.

While San Antonio and Texas overall are seeing a slight downturn in the real estate market, the situation isn’t nearly as bad here as what the rest of the nation — especially Florida, California and Nevada — is experiencing.

“San Antonio is one of the top housing markets in the United States right now,” said Jack Inselmann, vice president of the U.S. Central Division of Metrostudy, a housing research firm. “We are a lot better off than other areas around the country, but they get the headlines.”

Home values here are still rising, though the market peaked in the third quarter of 2006. Last year, values gained at a healthy rate of 8.3 percent, according to Inselmann. Texas as a whole gained at rate of 5.2 percent, while overall the U.S. was gaining at a rate of only .8 percent.

Why is San Antonio bucking the national trend? Texas didn’t experience the astronomically inflated appreciation rates that California and Nevada saw a few years ago, which precipitated a dramatic collapse in those states.

THE RUNDOWN

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Also, San Antonio has experienced strong job growth and population growth, which is expected to continue. Those factors bolster the housing market.

People wanting to buy a home in San Antonio right now are in luck, said Bob Leonard, chairman of the San Antonio Board of Realtors. The city has significantly more affordable housing than most major Texas cities, he said (the average price of a home in San Antonio is $177,000), and interest rates are low.

Plus, home buyers actually can take advantage of the small shrinking of the market here, Inselmann said: There’s an excess of inventory, which means prices of existing homes are coming down and builders are offering upgrades, discounts and other deals on new homes.

Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor
 
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