San Antonio foreclosure listings have been showing stable prices, according to data released by the San Antonio Board of Realtors.
Among the reasons for the price stability are the level supply of homes for sale in the city and the slowing entry of foreclosures into the market, according to city realtors. Travis Kessler, chief executive of SABOR, said the city has an eight-month supply of houses for sale, which is a stable level.
Based on SABOR data, there were 1,561 houses sold in September, a drop of 2 percent from sales in September 2008. Florence Terrell, chairperson of SABOR, said the sales decline slowed, compared to sales drops in the early months of 2009 when sales fell by two-digit percentages.
Terrell also said that the July and August home sales surpassed sales during the same months last year.
Home prices stayed around $151,000, almost the same as the median home price in September 2008. Kessler explained that the level of supply made home prices stable. Year-to-date home sales dropped by 10 percent to 13,546 units.
Kessler also said that the federal $8,000 tax credit prompted a lot of first time home buyers to make their home purchases in September. He said that houses prices below $200,000 comprised 74 percent of total home sales in September and that around 10 percent of home sales were short sales and sales from San Antonio foreclosure listings.
He said that the $200,000 price range has been the price level preferred by first time home buyers. Over 70 percent of house sales so far in October were priced around $200,000.
Another San Antonio realtor and owner of a real estate firm, D’Ann Harper, said that first time home buyers have helped her business tremendously.
Real estate business owner Rick Kuper also reported that pending house sales in September rose from last year by about 11 percent to 1,494. Because of the increase, he said he is expecting an increase in sales in October and in the remaining months of 2009.
While the realtors in San Antonio are reporting a stability in home prices in their city, one online real estate research firm reported that San Antonio is among the cities with the biggest percentage of price drops for the June to October 2009 period. The firm reported that home prices in San Antonio dropped by 37 percent in October.
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