San Antonio’s booming growth and low interest rates helped fuel another record for home sales last year, also pushing the area’s median home price to its highest level ever.

Home sales in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area surged 8.3 percent in 2016 to a record 29,508, up from 27,256 in 2015, according to data released Monday from the San Antonio Board of Realtors.

The homes that sold last year were also more expensive to buy. The median sales price climbed 6 percent to $204,300 last year, the first time it has reached above $200,000

“It’s another example of what a good economy and what a good market we’ve had, and how much it’s improved since the bottom,” said Jack Inselmann, regional director of Metrostudy, a national housing researcher. He said home sales in 2017 will be at least as strong. “We’re looking forward to another good year.”

Experts say local job growth and a rising population, especially in the far North and West sides, are fueling San Antonio’s home sales. But those trends — as well as a labor shortage and tight federal lending policies — are also driving up prices, making it more difficult for homebuyers to find cheap starter homes.

Lynn Knapik, a local Realtor who sells homes across the city, said she had a busy year in 2016, especially in the final months.

While the rising prices mean higher commissions for her, they also slow sales as clients take longer to find a house in their price range, she said. She’s noticed that many first-time buyers struggle to find an affordable home, which is a concern, she said.

“We as Realtors need to be aware of that,” she said. She’s serving as chairwoman this year of SABOR’s equal opportunity housing committee, where she will lead discussions about affordable housing.

The local area’s inventory of available homes — measured by the average time it takes for a home to be sold if no new homes are listed — dropped again in December to a record low of 3.1 months. Realtors say that six months indicates a balance between buyers and sellers; the last time the local market was balanced was in November 2012. The low inventory makes it a seller’s market.

Inselmann predicted that inventory will stay the same or drop further this year, meaning that homes will continue to be snatched up quickly by buyers. But the low inventory locally isn’t alarming, he said. Inventory in Austin has been around 2 or 2.5 months in recent years, he said.

Earlier this month, Inselmann predicted that the local housing market would have another good year in 2017 because of strong job growth. But a growing shortage of affordable homes could limit sales, making it more difficult for working-class families and members of the military to find something in their price range, he said. Finding new homes under $150,000 is nearly impossible, and it’s getting more difficult even at $200,000.

Yet rising prices are actually helping the local resale market because many buyers can’t find new homes in their price range, Inselmann said Monday.

San Antonio’s home prices still remain low when compared with other major cities in Texas and many other cities in the U.S., said Lorena Peña, a SABOR board member. The median sales price in Texas last year went up 7.1 percent to $212,000.

“From everything we’re looking at, (home prices) should be able to stay steady,” Peña said. “I don’t think we really do the California, the Nevada, the Florida thing where we do the superhighs, the superlows. We are very much a slow and steady rise.”

Mortgage rates have been creeping up over the past few months, which has boosted recent sales as homebuyers rush to complete purchases before they go up further, experts say. The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.12 percent last week, which is extremely low historically but above the rate of 3.42 percent that was reached in October.

Mark Dotzour, a retired professor from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, said this month that he expects mortgage rates to rise by a quarter or a half of a percentage point this year, remaining low when compared with their levels in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. The National Association of Realtors recently said it expected rates to end up at 4.6 percent by the end of the year.

Lorie Campos, who owns Lux Agency and specializes in areas close to downtown, said she has noticed a recent influx of eager homebuyers as rates climb.

“Interest rates are going up, and people have come to the realization that the election was the election and we all have to move on,” she said. “The first two weeks of January have been very busy for us. … People that were on the fence are like, ‘I’m going to buy.’”

Some analysts forecast that the national housing market will slow this year. The National Association of Realtors predicted last month that U.S. home sales would increase only modestly in 2017 because of rising mortgage rates and home prices.

The far West Side and far North Side continued to be major boom areas for the local housing market last year, according to SABOR’s data. About 1,432 homes were sold last year in the 78245 ZIP code, which stretches west of Loop 1604, a 16.2 percent increase from 2015.

Campos said she’s also noticed that more people are becoming interested in living around downtown, including empty-nesters and members of the military. A surge of new development projects was announced for downtown last year.

“There’s a lot of national confidence about San Antonio,” Campos said. “I feel like a lot of the high-end apartment complexes have served as sort of an incubator for prospective buyers. They try out downtown, they like it and they want to purchase.”

rwebner@express-news.net

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