THEHOMEFRONT Generally, local house prices and sales have rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic’s e ects, but availability of homes in nine north side area zip codes priced under $200,000 is below ideal levels, housing analysts said. TOTAL HOME SALES year-over-year
RENTALS ON THE RISE The San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area has seen increases in rents, occupancy and con- struction starts, but a ordability is shrinking. MULTIFAMILY UNIT CONSTRUCTION starts year-over-year
281
78260
78258
78259
78249
1604
78248
78232
N
10
78216
78230
15,000
Summer 2019
296
February 2021
78231
12,000
Spring 2020
254
SINGLE FAMILY HOME CONSTRUCTION STARTS for San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA year-over-year
February 2022
21,000
Summer 2021
AVERAGE HOME SALES PRICE year-over-year
AVERAGE LOCAL RENT CHANGES
13,819
2019
$429,153
February 2021
$978
16,427
January 2020
2020
17,387
2021
$988
December 2020
$447,625
February 2022
22,500 (forecast)
$1,140
2022
December 2021
SOURCES: SAN ANTONIO BOARD OF REALTORS, NORADA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS, ZONDA COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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Santarelli, Norada Real Estate Invest- ments founder, said he agreed with fellow housing analysts that a limited home inventory is contributing to increasing home prices and sales and expanding a seller’s market. Santarelli said the San Antonio area has about 1.6 months of available homes in its inventory, an issue com- pounded by labor shortages in hous- ing construction and supply chain issues. “In a balanced real estate market, it would take about six months for the supply to dwindle to zero. San Anto- nio and the surrounding metro area are still a strong, steady market that’s poised to stay that way in the coming months,” Santarelli said. Santarelli also said San Antonio can become a buyer’s real estate market if the supply of available homes grows to more than six months of inventory, but it appears that will not happen anytime soon. Rentals become the rage For residents who do not own, housing analysts such as Norada said the San Antonio area’s rental mar- ket is still strong. The San Antonio Apartment Association reported an 18.2% hike in overall local rents from December 2020 to December 2021 and that 93% of all local professionally managed properties were occupied by December 2021. Local rents, on average, have gone up from $988 in December 2020 to $1,140 in December 2021, according to the SAAA.
During the SAAA’s State of the Industry event, ApartmentData.com President Bruce McClenny said lesser availability of single-family dwellings and rising home prices both continue to spark demand for rentals. “We have a breakdown in the sin- gle-family housing market when it becomes less a ordable and there’s also less availability. Those people become renters,” McClenny said. “That drives the occupancy [rate], and rents will follow as demand and availability change.” According to McClenny, develop- ers have generally done well keeping pace with demand for multifamily properties, saying 5,068 local rental units were completed or opened in 2021 and that some 8,000 rental units were forecast for delivery in the San Antonio area this year. “That might be a little optimistic, but I do believe developers are work- ing hard,” McClenny said. McIntosh said it appears San Anto- nio’s economy will stay in a positive direction and maintain favorable con- ditions for the local rental market for the rest of 2022. “I think it’s safe to say that while economic growth will probably slow this year in the United States, the San Antonio economy should do fairly well, and the apartment market, with the growth that we’re experiencing in population and jobs, should continue to do well,” he said. AliWolf, chief economist for housing research rm Zonda, addressed Urban Land Institute-San Antonio’s annual
housing summit in January. Wolf, too, predicted San Antonio’s economic growth indicators will remain positive or stabilize in spite of in ation. However, Wolf said homebuilders must raise their local single-family home inventory to help boost diver- si cation of housing options. Wolf said 90% of homebuilders recently surveyed by Zonda are trying to slow down home sales in Texas so their inventories keep pace with demand. “Demand is so strong,” Wolf said, adding that homebuilders possibly limiting their statewide sales may indirectly a ect homeowners seeking to sell their home. “I think we’ll see [the number of single family homes] go up. It may encourage existing homeowners to list their homes.” In e orts toward bolstering sin- gle-family housing, Texas saw a 6.5% increase in home construction starts in November 2021 following three months of continuous decline, accord- ing to the Texas A&M University’s Texas Real Estate Research Center. “Dwindling inventory persisted as a major headwind to the health of Texas’ housing market,” TRERC analysts said in their February 2022 report. Expanding a ordability Housing industry analysts also agreed, while San Antonio remains a mostly a ordable place to live com- pared with other major U.S. metropol- itan markets, rising home prices and rents are compelling the public and private sectors to provide more inex- pensive options.
country, which continues to support the demand for apartments.” Home sales, price on upswing Like McIntosh, real estate compa- nies and research rms say several key data points in the San Antonio area’s overall housing market trended upward in 2021, despite COVID-19’s economic e ects. In November, the median price of a local home increased 19% year- over-year to $307,200, and the aver- age local home price rose by 17% to $359,545, according to the San Anto- nio Board Of Realtors, which serves Bexar and nine surrounding counties. However, SABOR o cials said the total number of home sales did drop slightly from 38,783 in 2020 to 37,332 before December 2021, but the lat- ter number was still higher than the total yearly home sales between 2017 and 2019. Analysts said many of these trends will continue to rise slowly or at least level o in 2022, partially because of rising interest rates and other in a- tionary e ects. SABOR board Chair Tracie Hass- locher described the start of the 2022 local home market as steady, saying homes stayed on the market an aver- age of 38 days and were 100% sold at least at listing price during the winter. “We sawa steady increase inmedian, average price and pending sales for the month of February,” she said. In his company’s review and fore- cast of the San Antonio market, Marco
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