SAN ANTONIO – A study commissioned by the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation and presented to the City Council on Wednesday found that older housing units are providing much of the city’s affordable housing, but they are also being lost “at a rapid pace.”The study, prepared by Donovan Rypkema at PlaceEconomics, found that 22 percent of the city’s housing units were built before 1960.
At the heart of the study’s conclusion is a simple idea: when it comes to housing, older generally equals more affordable.
But in large, in the aggregate, the older share of housing is more affordable housing.”Rypkema said these homes, though, have been disappearing -- three every week for the past 10 years.
And in a city racing to get ahead of an affordable housing problem, that’s an issue.
“Almost by definition, anytime you tear down an old unit of housing, you’ve torn down a unit of affordable housing,” Rypkema said.