Page 8 - 2020 GSABA Housing Forecast Magazine

President’s Message
Welcome to the 2020 San Antonio Housing ForecastTM
Jeff Czar
2020 GSABA President
I am honored to serve as the 2020 President of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association. We are kicking off the year with our Housing Forecast presented in part by Jack Inselmann and MetroStudy. Thank you, Jack, for your leadership of the Forecast for 30+ years. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Jon Hockenyos with TXP Economists and Strategists where he serves as president. TXP performs technical analysis and strategy development for their clients.
Affordability is a hot button for me, and I know it is for many of you as well. Most of my career I have led building companies that provided new affordable housing. With the increase in building materials, fees and regulations, our homeownership rate has been steadily declining and is at an all-time low of 64%. We all need to be concerned with the affordability factor of new homes, especially in the Greater San Antonio area.
The average price of a preowned home in the San Antonio area today is $277,680 according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors October 2019 report and the median price is up 6% to $235,700.
The median price of a new home is $263,000 and the average price of a new home is $330,000 in San Antonio according to the latest MetroStudy Report in November 2019.
An alarming new analysis of U.S. Census
Bureau data recently conducted by NAHB found that the median lot price for a single- family lot of land had risen 4.4% in 2018, higher than the 2.4% average rate of inflation last year. The analysis found that the most significant increase was in Texas where lot prices have more than doubled since the pre- recession housing peak with more than half of single-family lots valued at or above $62,000.
Dr. Jim Gaines with the Texas A & M Research Center provided the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) with an update in 2017 that showed that, with the increase of $1,000 in the price of a home between $150K to $200K, 22,749 households are priced out of the market.
We must stand together on needless fees, regulations and delays that affect our bottom line and our closings. This past year, it became evident that cities that take 30 to 60 days to issue permits and have repeated delays in inspection turnaround times cost us all business.
I want to invite you to get involved with GSABA and our Government Affairs outreach efforts. We have City Teams in place that work with cities throughout our 22-county jurisdiction. Please call me or Kristi Sutterfield to learn more about how you can get involved.
Thank you for being a member of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association.
Sincerely,
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2020 HOUSING FORECAST