HOUSING MARKET

One agent said the real estate market has steadied out since the start of the pandemic, but prices you see now across San Antonio may still be higher than they were a few years ago.

Real Estate Agent Ronnie Trevino with Keller Williams Heritage joined Leading SA to help break down the rise in interest rates for a 30-year-fixed mortgage and the impacts on the local housing market.

The average sale price of a home in San Antonio in July was $295,000, according to Redfin. That’s up 12% since the same time last year. However, with a questionable national economy and an apparent pullback in offers on homes, how does the local real estate market look, and what comes next?

As part of an initiative to create more affordable housing and an increased inventory of homes, President Joe Biden recently announced his administration wants to make single-family homes less available to investors.

When you hear the term “affordable housing,” what do you think of?

It’s been a strange time, living through a global pandemic. What first might have come as a surprise, is the housing boom that followed -- and the fact that things have stayed red hot.

There are understandable concerns from homebuyers about inventory and sky-high prices, but there might have been recent some encouraging news to help alleviate those worries.

Just in the past few weeks, the Biden administration announced it would take steps to address a severe housing shortage in the U.S.

We’ve all heard about it by now: Houses are selling like crazy (and they have been for quite some time), interest rates have been at all-time lows, and it seems like everywhere you turn, you learn of another wild real estate story.

Now, Zillow is no longer just an online platform for browsing available homes or for creeping on the value of your neighbor’s house. The company has started buying, fixing up and selling homes itself through a new division called “Zillow offers.”It announced the new feature aimed at streamlining the process for homeowners considering selling to the site. Zestimate initial cash offers will be available in 23 markets to start. For a growing set of properties in those markets, Zillow has enough data on the home and others like it that it feels confident making the Zestimate its initial cash offer. For homeowners who decline the cash offer, the difference between Zillow’s offer and what they end up selling for is typically less than one percent.

On average, prices are going up across the country, including here in San Antonio. While mortgage rates remain at record lows, home prices are rising across the country. The nation’s median existing single-family home price climbed to $313,500 in the third quarter of this fiscal year. Prices are rising largely due to the combination of low mortgage rates that are attracting buyers, and a limited supply of available homes to buy. According to Zillow, the San Antonio New Braunfels median home value is 221,860.

SAN ANTONIO – A new market report released by Zillow, an online real estate database company, says home values are growing at a pace not seen since the market was recovering from the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009. “Inventory for the week ending Oct. 10 plumbed new lows, down 36.4% year over year, while median list price rose 11.6% above 2019,” the company said. As of the week ending Oct. 10, the number of homes on the market was down 27.8% from last year. Additionally, according to the company, typical U.S. rents dropped slightly in September to $1,756 after sustaining a 0.5% monthly decline in August. “Persistent strong demand drove inventory to record lows, down 36.4% year over year, and list prices up 11.6% above 2019 in the week ending Oct. 10.”To read the survey in full, click here.