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New data reveals that San Antonio has one of the largest ramp-ups in housing inventory in the nation.
According to franchise real estate brokerage RE/MAX, which looked at multiple listing service data for 50 metro areas around the U.S. in February, San Antonio’s housing stock increased by 234.3% year-over-year. That's the fourth-highest increase noted by the brokerage, and brings San Antonio to 3.1 months of inventory in February 2023, up from 0.9 months the year before.
The increase is well past the average increase of one month of inventory nationally. Metros that boasted larger ramp-ups include Raleigh, North Carolina, with 367.3%, Dallas, with 343.4% and Salt Lake City, Utah, with 264%.
Looking more closely at multiple listing service data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors shows similar results. Last year, homes were being snapped up at breakneck speeds, hardly allowing time for them to get on the market before being purchased. That changed dramatically in March, when the Fed began to hike up rates. Now, the number of homes on the market is 9,712 - a 132% increase.
Among the metros surveyed by RE/MAX, only Bozeman, Montana, boasted a higher months’ supply of inventory with 3.3. New Orleans, Louisiana, followed closely behind San Antonio with three months.
The report also noted that homes in San Antonio are spending a higher-than-average amount of time on the market, at 64 days compared to the national average of 45 days. The Alamo City tied Seattle, and was preceded only by Bozeman, with 79 days and Fayetteville, Arkansas, with 78.
While the increase in housing inventory is a step toward balance in San Antonio’s housing market, it is still only half of the six-month inventory recommended for a healthy market by the National Association of Realtors.
"Prices have steadied and demand is strong, but the lack of available, affordable homes remains a challenge," Nick Bailey, RE/MAX president and CEO, said in a statement. He echoed other experts’ sentiments that sales activity would follow mortgage rates. After mortgage rates drop in the wake of the successive failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month, it's unclear what effect the Federal Reserve's plan to bump rates another 25 basis points will have on a projected spring housing boom.
Still, many housing experts have been quick to caution Business Journal readers that these aren’t signs of a market in crisis - rather, a market being brought back into balance after two years of rock-bottom interest rates whipped the market into a frenzy.