San Antonio, Texas Real Estate Blog & Market News

This looks like a promising year for Bexar County, in terms of homebuilding. In fact, coming off of the last few years of dismal homebuilding statistics for Bexar County, Bexar County activity appears to be heading toward a very positive year.

Homebuilding Levels in Free Fall during Recent Years

Let’s first look at the fact that, since 2006, homebuilding in North Texas fallen 70 percent. Yep, that’s right: 70 percent. According to the recent statistics, homebuilding in North Texas is the slowest it’s been in more than 20 years. With all this doom and gloom you’d think that there wasn’t a bright spot to be found; but, instead, it looks as if the Bexar County activity is quite strong. The Dallas-Fort Worth and the Houston markets were ranked as the top two building markets in 2009. In 2009, Houston posted 22,360 building permits and the Dallas-Fort Worth area has 14,130 last year. Other cities to make the list of top building markets for 2009 include: Austin, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Atlanta.

Building Permits on the Rise

Although homebuilding permits are up in Bexar County and in North Texas, jobs are another issue. In 2009, the state of Texas lost almost 300,000 jobs. Amazingly, though, this number is small compared to other markets across the country. The stronger economy across Texas, including Bexar County activity, has therefore boosted the need for homes.

A Shorter Supply of Homes on the Market

As of the last quarter of 2009, all major markets across Texas had about a six-month supply of homes for sale; compare that to the national average of 10 months and it’s easy to see that this area of the country is leaps and bounds ahead of other areas in terms of employment and housing activity. In fact, many real estate experts are predicting that many of the markets in Texas will experience a housing shortage as the year draws on. Some builders are increasing their construction efforts as a result of this positive news, although there are still many builders who are being cut off from financing, thereby making the job of filling the demand for new homes quite difficult. This is especially true if employment growth picks up later this year, as many experts are predicting.