It costs about the same to buy a house in San Antonio this year as it did around this time in 2024, and a little less to rent an apartment.
But fewer “sold” signs were showing up in front yards in March compared to last year, according to data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR).
Also, while renters might be paying less now than in recent years, due to a glut of apartments on the market, rates could rise if the current trade wars continue to fuel uncertainty or start to drive up construction costs, said a recent Redfin report.
“That could further hamper apartment supply, causing rents to jump,” said Redfin economics research lead Chen Zhao. “Tariffs could also drive up rents by increasing demand.”
In March, the average rent for an apartment in San Antonio was $1,289, according to the apartment rental site, RentCafe. The highest average rent was in Midtown, at $2,201 a month, and the lowest in Stone Oak, at $1,491.
Reduced sales activity has been the trend lately, according to SABOR. In San Antonio last month, just under 3,000 homes were sold, an 8% decrease from March 2024.
The month of January was busy for Melissa Aguillon, a real estate agent with the Jason Glast Group at Phyllis Browning Co. Then, “it actually slowed down a little bit, and by March, it got a little bit slower,” she said. “But we’re starting to pick up again.”
Traditionally, April 15 to July 15 is the busiest time for the team, she added.
Despite fewer sales in March, both the median and average home prices rose slightly, according to SABOR.
The median price in San Antonio increased by 2% to $315,499 while the average price also grew by 2%, to $378,792.
Inventory also continued to expand, offering buyers more homes to choose from.
The number of new listings rose by 6% to almost 5,000 in March, and active listings reached 14,716 — an 18% hike.
In Aguillon’s experience, houses are not selling as fast as they did before. “But they’re still probably within a two- to three-month turnaround, which is really good,” she said.
Pending sales dipped by 7% to almost 3,000, a data point that SABOR attributes to buyers’ hesitancy and affordability.
“We’re continuing to see a market environment where inventory is growing and prices remain steady,” stated Reagan Williamson, SABOR board chairman and local real estate broker. “Buyers have more homes to choose from, and sellers must remain strategic with pricing to stand out in a more competitive landscape.”
But as the spring home-buying season gets underway, the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University has reported that residential mortgage lending activity kicked into a higher gear in March.
“We are hearing from lenders that mortgage credit availability and loan approval rates are favorable,” stated Yanling Mayer, research economist at the Real Estate Research Center. “The rising inventory is also shifting market conditions in favor of homebuyers. In fact, inventory has exceeded pre-pandemic levels.”
How much does a house cost in San Antonio?
Danny Khalil, associate director of market analytics at the real estate information firm CoStar, said the single-family home market in San Antonio is very flat right now, holding the line with a median price of $300,000.
“Not too high, not too low, but I guess that is our reputation,” he said.
The median home price increased by $2,000 in San Antonio and 0.7% year over year in South Central Texas, maintaining the market’s affordability relative to the nation as a whole.
In San Antonio, the median price also rose 0.7% between March 2024 and March 2025, “highlighting the extent to which South Central Texas has experienced flat appreciation for more than two years now,” stated the CoStar report.
The median sales price of homes sold in the United States in March 2025 rose 5% over the same month last year, according to CoStar, with 33 of the nation’s largest markets experiencing faster appreciation than San Antonio.
How is apartment rent trending?
While the purchase price of a house increased only slightly since last year, the going rate to rent an apartment continued to drop slightly in March, also following trends.
Almost half of all San Antonio households are renters, according to census data.
Renters gained a slight edge in price since 2010 as a building spree of multifamily and build-to-rent housing increased competition and pushed rates down. In some cases, property managers were sweetening the deal to get leases signed, sometimes offering up to two months of free rent.
But groundbreakings slowed in 2024, and the current administration has threatened trade tariffs since the start of the current year.
The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Association of General Contractors has warned that tariffs would make construction more expensive and could trigger retaliatory measures that harm U.S. businesses and workers.
In March, the median asking apartment rent rate in the U.S. fell 0.6% to $1,610 compared to March 2024, but increased 0.4% since February, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.
March was the 13th consecutive month in which asking rents barely decreased or increased.
Redfin economists and other experts have predicted that rents will tick up again due to slowing apartment construction, with the effect of tariffs now coming into play.
“America gets a lot of building materials from other countries, so tariffs will make building apartments more expensive,” said Redfin economics research lead Chen Zhao.
That would hamper supply, causing rents to go up, as would an increase in the number of people opting to rent rather than buy due to economic turmoil.
But homebuyers and sellers might be tiring of the market uncertainty. Aguillon said her fellow agents are sensing some pent-up demand after a year of rising interest rates.
“We thought maybe people were waiting to see what’s going to happen toward the end of last year,” she said. “But I think they are getting used to the mortgage rate staying the same so they’re just like, well, I guess it’s time to make a move.”
