Home sales in the San Antonio area rose for the sixth straight month as prices continued increasing and the inventory of available houses kept tightening.
Buyers in Bexar and surrounding counties snapped up 3,125 homes last month, an increase of 26.7% compared with November 2019, new data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors shows. Sales year-to-date are up 10%.
"As we look to the finale of the year, the housing market is one of the things that has remained steady and strong in 2020," said Kim Bragman, SABOR's 2020 board chairman. "Our state, and specifically San Antonio, is definitely a great place to live, and the numbers show it."
The median price jumped 13.1% to $260,900 last month. Houses spent an average of 49 days on the market before selling, down from 60 days during the same period last year, and active listings are down nearly 39%.
Inventory, which is measured by the average time it takes for a home to be sold if no new homes are listed, dropped to two months in November. Six months is usually considered a balance between buyers and sellers, and the supply stood at 3.6 months during the same period in 2019.
Over 67% of the homes sold last month were priced between $200,000 and $499,999, according to figures provided by SABOR. Nearly 22% were priced under $199,999 and just over 10% more than $500,000.
The pandemic is upending seasonal patterns with sales, which usually accelerate during the summer as families aim to move before school starts and slow in the winter.
Local sales declined in April and May as prospective buyers stayed home and sellers took their homes off the market.
Activity picked up in the summer, fueled by low interest rates, people wanting more space and a shortage of available homes. The national average for a
Similar trends are playing out in markets across the country.
In October, sales of existing homes increased 4.3% from the month prior and 26.5% year-over-year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median price jumped 15.5% to $313,000. The organization has not yet released November data.
"Considering that we remain in a period of stubbornly high unemployment relative to pre-pandemic levels, the housing sector has performed remarkably well this year," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
