During a year upended by COVID-19, San Antonio’s housing market boomed.
Last year, a record 38,448 homes were sold in Bexar and surrounding counties, an 11.2 percent increase compared with 2019, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors. After declining at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, sales soared.
“With all that 2020 brought us locally, regionally, nationwide and worldwide, the end-of-year data certainly showed us continued growth of the housing market,” said Cher Miculka, SABOR’s chairman of the board. “Our city and surrounding areas are attractive places to own a home, both for locals and for transplants, and the numbers prove it.”
Over 65 percent of homes sold last year were priced between $200,000 and $499,999. Nearly 26 percent were priced under $199,000 and the remaining 8.4 percent at over $500,000.
Sales in Bexar County alone jumped 11.7 percent, a bigger increase than in Travis, Harris and Dallas counties, according to SABOR.
Prices kept rising as buyers eager to take advantage of low mortgage rates or seeking larger spaces faced a tight supply of available homes.
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The median price jumped 7 percent to a record $250,100 in the region. Statewide, it was $260,000, according to SABOR.
Inventory, which is measured by the average time it takes for a home to be sold if no new homes are listed, fell to 1.7 months in December. Six months is usually considered a healthy balance between buyers and sellers. Inventory month-to-month has remained below 3.5 months this year.
There were 9,463 active listings in the area in December 2019; last month (December 2020), there were 5,504. “Finding the buyers isn’t the problem. It’s finding the houses,” Jim Gaines, chief economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, said during SABOR’s annual conference last week. “Active listings are down tremendously.”
The increase in prices is also making it more difficult for some buyers to find a home.
“Affordability is a major issue (and) is going to be a major issue for the rest of this decade,” he said. With many people still out of jobs or having closed their businesses, Gaines also expects foreclosures to rise this year.
The National Association of Realtors has not yet released figures for 2020, though the trade group predicts a 20 percent jump in new home sales, a 3 percent increase in existing-home sales and a 6 percent increase in prices.
This year, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun is forecasting new home sales will climb 21 percent, existing-home sales will increase 9 percent and prices will rise 3 percent. But a dearth of lower-priced homes continues to be a concern.
“The consequent rise in home prices has boosted wealth accumulation for homeowners,” Yun said in November. “But the opposite side of this will mean the continued decline of housing affordability and will limit future homeownership opportunities for young adults if housing supply is not greatly increased.”