San Antonio Realty News - 1/18/09
Posted by Randy Kelley on January 18, 2009
ïssatou Sidimé - Express-News -16 Jan 09
The median price of existing homes suffered its steepest plunge in more than 12 years, dropping 7 percent in December.
The median price of a home in the San Antonio area was $139,900, down from $150,700 in December 2007. That decline occurred as total sales dropped 19 percent to 1,322 from 1,631 in December 2007.
The hardest-hit areas were between Interstate 35 South and Culebra Road out west into Medina County and the far eastern part of Bexar County near China Grove.
Nationwide, the median home price fell 13.2 percent to $181,300 in November, the most recent figures available.
December’s sales revealed other signs the San Antonio housing market — recently highlighted as one of the strongest nationwide — is softening more than expected: the average amount of time a house spent on the market topped three months for the first time in 2008.
Moreover, pending homes sales — a preview of future sales — were below 1,000 for the second month in a row.
The weaker performance came just a week after presentations at the San Antonio Board of Realtors annual forecast projected an improvement in sales in 2009.
Bob Gardner, owner of Gardner Financial Services, and Travis Kessler, CEO of SABOR, both based their rosy 2009 outlook on anecdotal evidence of increased sales activity in December.
So the December figures caught Gardner by surprise. Kessler wasn’t available for comment.
“It’s just disappointing,” said Gardner, whose company issues mortgages under the name Legacy Mutual Mortgage. “The December numbers didn’t show any improvement. I was hopeful that it would.”
Still Gardner maintained existing home sales would improve in 2009.
“Because of low interest rates, we are seeing a lot more activity on the purchase side,” he said.
The median price of an existing single-family home in San Antonio started softening in late summer, staying basically flat until November when it began dropping significantly.
San Antonio’s dip in pending home sales reflects the national decline in November, according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors. Nationwide pending home sales as of November were at the lowest level since 2001. December figures weren’t available.
“Mounting job losses and very weak consumer confidence deterred home buyers from signing contracts in November,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a release Dec. 23.
Such pressures resulted in San Antonio’s eight-month supply of existing homes at the end of November. That was higher than Houston and Dallas (both at a 6.3-months supply), Fort Worth (5.9 months) and Austin (5.7 months), according to the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center.
The mounting supply then likely had a direct negative impact on sales in December because as supply increases, buyers usually demand lower prices.
San Antonio sellers also appear to have priced homes lower to begin with, given that average sale price was about 95 percent of the listed price, according to SABOR.
Tighter lending guidelines continued to undermine sales, said Jim Gaines, housing markets research economist at the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center.
“The uncertainly in the mortgage market and lenders requiring more documentation for jobs and higher down payments may have been a factor,” Gaines said.
There might be a glimmer of hope in the data indicating there were fewer new listings in December, which suggests the supply of homes could decrease and lead to a more balanced market, Gaines said.
But sales also are closely linked to employment, and job losses could negatively affect sales.
This is especially so with the state’s key sectors, such as oil production and refining. A decline in the jobs in the oil sector would hurt tourism into San Antonio. Any decline in tourism would hurt the local job market, and therefore sales.
End of Article
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