San Antonio's Rockstar Turned Realtor®

What a difference a zip code makes.

While doing my weekly market reviews, I saw somethings that I thought I'd point out.  While the city of San Antonio is experiencing a decent flow of properties being bought and thereby decreasing our inventory, not every zip code performs the same.  While overall knowledge of San Antonio markets is important, specific knowledge of varying areas allows you to truly narrow down your research and pinpoint markets that are outperforming others.  Let's take a look.

Overall, San Antonio's inventory of available homes has been declining as of late.  Although we have a long way to go before the market shifts into a seller's market, declining inventory levels are good for San Antonio's sellers as more buyers will be forced to look at less houses.  As the supply decreases, demand increases - and with rising demand, prices increase.

Now let's compare San Antonio's overall inventory with some specific zip codes current inventory levels.

As you can see, each zip code varies in its own inventory levels.  Both 78230 and 78231 have seen rising inventory levels recently (78230 more than 78231).  One of the things affecting this is the lack of buyers above $200K that we have been noticing lately around our office.  Homes under $200K seem to be selling well, but as you move higher, the buyers become more scarce.  With many of the homes in these zip codes beginning in these price ranges, you can see how that would affect inventory levels.

78250 and 78251 have been experiencing just the opposite - a decline in inventory levels.  With lower priced homes, this area makes a perfect entrance for the first time home buyer (who can benefit from the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit).  Because of affordability, this area will out perform areas with higher end homes in times of economic instability.

78258 is an interesting zip code, because although inventory levels have been falling in recent weeks, it has gone through some of the biggest ups and downs in the pas six months.  A sharp increase in inventory followed by a sharp decrease in inventory is a good sign that the area's home sellers were looking to sell and priced their homes accordingly.  No matter what, price is king.  All the marketing in the world won't sell an overpriced home.

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I wasn't until recently that I got into listing homes.

For those of you that don't remember, I didn't start listing homes right away when I began my career in real estate.  I felt I needed to be prepared to do so.  Because of this, I didn't join the listing game until the market was full of inventory and things had slowed.

When things are slow, listing a home can be frustrating work.  You find yourself trying to sound upbeat to the seller while banging your head against a wall and feeling like there must be something more you can do.  You hate to not have good news.  It's hard for the sellers to take too and you fear that some day they will make the dreaded call telling you to beat it.

I currently have two listings.

I don't have some great long list of homes I'm currently listing.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm all about slow growth in my career.  I plan on being a top producer, but I like to take things slow in order to fully grasp each and every aspect of what it is I'm doing.

My two listings, one at 815 Park Point and one at 322 Teakwood Lane have been great homes to list.  Two incredibly different home and two different styles of thinking on how to market them.  I enjoy the differences between them both.  One of the things I love most about real estate is the constant change to each and every day.

"For Sale" Signs.

Like most agents, I have my own "for sale" signs out front of the homes.  Those signs are our way of announcing to the general public "hey look over here!"  During the slow time when I took my first listing, it didn't say much more than, "hey look over here - I'm another house on the market that you don't want to buy because you're worried about the economy!"

There has been a shift in recent weeks.  More interest, more questions, more emails, more phone calls.  Agents from all over the country that I know are reporting an increase in inquiries and business.  What interests me most though is the number of calls from signs I've been getting.  People are out there, driving around - even on a Thursday - and stopping in front of the signs and calling for more information.  The curiosity factor is increasing and I welcome it as do my sellers.  An agent in my office made an offer and was up against four other offers the other day.  People are buying houses and looking to move once again.  Combine the better news appearing recently, the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, low interest rates, and the warm San Antonio spring weather and you have a recipe for a change in the market.

photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

San Antonio Housing Market Report 3/30/2009

As you can see and you've probably heard from real estate agents in our area, it looks like we've been out housebuying recently.  Over the last 30 days we've been seeing a slow decline in the numbers of listing on the market (current inventory).  Agents across San Antonio have been reporting increased activity as the weather has turned to bright blue skies and the rain we received has been doing its magic.

Median prices have been flat as of late (first chart is 30 day time span) although over the full year, (second chart) you can see that the prices have been on a slow and steady rise.  Current market indicators see the prices trending downward, but because of overall inventory levels, these prices can fluctuate quickly.

The Median Market Action Index (below) is a graphical representation of the balance between current inventory versus current rate of sale.  It compares the houses being listed and the house being sold in other words.  When the value of the Market Action Index moves above 30, the market is considered to be "hot" (or a seller's market), while anything below thirty is "cold" (or a buyer's market).  As you can see from that chart, we started upwards a bit early in the month of March, but our recent trend has been downwards.  We still have a long way to climb to make this a seller's market, but buyer's in San Antonio are definitely enjoying a market primed for their purchases.

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Please note, all data in the charts is in real time, so if you view this a month after it was written, the charts will have changed and the analysis might not make sense anymore. That's a great reason to sign up for the market reports.