Forbes magazine recently ranked San Antonio second, behind Oklahoma City, in its list of top-ten recession-proof cities.
And here is the latest update on the San Antonio housing market from the Texas Real Estate Research Center:
According to the latest analysis by leading housing-market research firm Metrostudy, between the months of January and March of this year, construction began on 2,332 single-family homes - down 35.3 percent from the 3,606 housing starts recorded during the same three months in 2007.
Meanwhile, over the first three months of this year, buyers closed on the purchase of 3,318 new single-family homes - a 24.5 percent decline from the 4,395 homes purchased during first quarter 2007. The figures are for the greater San Antonio MSA.
While numbers in the local housing market are down, there is good news to be gleaned from the recent figures - like the fact that builders are selling more homes than they are bringing to the landscape. Annual figures, for example, show that construction began on a total of 11,455 new homes over the 12 months ended March 31, 2008. Over that same period of time, 14,527 new homes were purchased.
By comparison, for the 12 months ended March 31, 2007, the San Antonio MSA recorded 17,982 new home starts, and 17,649 closings. Besides pulling back on the number of homes they start, builders are also offering buyer incentives to help whittle away at their existing inventory.
But given the underlying fundamentals in the Alamo City, local homebuyers should take heart. According to recent figures compiled by Alamo WorkSource, for the 12 months ended March 31, employers in the San Antonio MSA added 18,900 jobs to the local economy. The city's unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 3.9 percent - down from 4 percent in February 2008.
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