More San Antonio residents are finding a home for the holidays in the final months of 2018 than last year at this time as housing starts increase nationwide.
In a report released Tuesday, the San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR) stated that home sales continued their gradual year-over-year increases across the board, with 2,408 homes sold in November. That figure is a 4 percent increase from 2017, according to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) report from SABOR, which reports on all areas contained within the MLS.
“We had nearly 90 more homes sold this month from the same time last year, and 1,400 additional homes sold this year to date,” said Lorena Peña, SABOR board chairwoman. “These year-over-year increases just go to show that buyers are still finding properties that meet their needs and there is still high demand for homes in the area.”
However, the pace of home sales remains much the same as last year, with homes having spent an average of 62 days on the market in November, one day more than this time last year. More than 3,000 new listings hit the market in November, bringing the total number of active listings to 9,254 during the month.
The average price of homes sold in November rose 2 percent to $259,767 while the median price grew 5 percent to $226,200. The price per square foot rose 4 percent year-over-year to $122. The month ended with 1,949 sales still pending.
Homes priced between $200,000 and $499,000 accounted for the highest percentage of home sales per price bracket, at 55.19 percent. Homes sold for less than $199,000 made up 39.41 percent of the month’s market, and homes priced above $500,000 made up just 5.32 percent of the market.
In Bexar County, a total of 1,784 homes sold in November, a 3.2 percent increase from 2017. The average price of a home sold in the county increased .7 percent to $244,347 and the median price rose 2.5 percent to $210,000.
SABOR also reported that November’s home sales statewide totaled 23,434, a 3.1 percent drop year-over-year. The average price for a home sold in Texas went up 4.1 percent to $284,185 and the median price rose 4 percent to $232,000.
Also on Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the latest statistics for new residential construction during the month of November.
The statistics show the number of building permits for privately-owned housing units increased 5 percent between October and November, with a total of 1.3 million permits authorized. This total includes single-family authorizations as well as units in buildings with five units or more.
Privately-owned housing starts in November, including those for single-family homes and buildings with five units or more, totaled 1,256,000, a 3.2 percent increase from October’s estimate of 1,217,000. However, this year’s figure is 3.6 percent below the November 2017 rate of 1,303,000.
The number of homes completed in November was just over 1 million. This is .4 percent above the revised October estimate, but almost 4 percent below the November 2017 rate of 1,144,000.
