A growing population, a limited supply of domiciles and low mortgage rates keep pushing up home prices in San Antonio, but at a slower rate than in recent years.

The median sales price for a home in the San Antonio metro area grew to $195,500 in the first quarter of this year, a 5.8 percent increase from the year before, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors. That’s below the 9.1 percent growth rate for first quarter 2015 and 8 percent in 2014.

The slower pace of price growth could be a relief for aspiring homeowners. Prices have increased almost every month for the last couple years, raising concerns about whether San Antonio’s reputation as an affordable city is at risk. The median home price broke $200,000 for the first time in May of last year, peaking at $202,500, according to data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors.

“We’re slowing down a little bit,” said Jim Gaines, chief economist at the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center. Sustaining the high growth rates “is difficult and to some extent not really desirable because it plays havoc with affordable housing … even 5.8 percent is above normal.”

In large part, the rising prices in San Antonio are a side effect of the sizzling local housing market. This year is on track to be another record one for local home sales, challenging last year’s high of 27,154 homes sold.

Homebuyers also are benefiting from low mortgage rates. The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.61 percent Thursday, down from 3.8 percent in 2015 and 4.21 percent in 2014, according to Freddie Mac.

Another factor is pent-up demand from the housing crisis, when potential homebuyers delayed their plans because of the lousy economy. Now that the lingering demand has had time to dissipate, the rate of price increases is slowing down, SABOR Chairman Bob Jacobs said.

“We have pent-up demand (nationally), and that carries over to San Antonio,” Jacobs said. “As the pent-up demand slows slightly, you’re going to slow the value increase.”

Jacobs said he considers a 3 to 6 percent growth rate in median sales prices to be healthy.

The local trend of price growth is similar to that of the nation as a whole. The U.S. median sales price in the first quarter rose by 6.3 percent, to $217,600, a slowdown from 7.4 percent in first quarter 2015 and 8.6 percent in 2014.

The growth in sales prices also slackened for the metro areas of Austin, Dallas and Houston — especially Houston, which has been hit hard by the oil industry slump. The median price in Houston rose to $208,000 in the first quarter, a 3.8 percent increase. That’s “a little below the norm” for Houston, Gaines said, and a stark decline from the metro area’s 8.5 percent rate in 2015 and 12.8 percent in 2014.

“What the rest of this year holds for Houston is a little problematic,“ Gaines said, due to the area’s “minimal” job growth.

In the Austin metro area, the median sales price rose by 7.9 percent, to $269,700, and in Dallas, by 9.1 percent to $210,100.

Nationwide, existing single-family homes and condos sold at a rate of 5.29 million a year in the first quarter, an increase of 4.8 percent from first quarter 2015. Home sales were “somewhat subdued” by rising prices and imbalances between supply and demand, said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist, in a news release.

“As a result, the path to homeownership so far this year remains strenuous for a segment of prospective buyers,” he said.

Housing supply in the San Antonio area has been restricted for the last few years. The inventory — measured by the average time it takes for a home on the market to be sold if no new homes are listed — was at 3.8 months in March, well below the six months that indicates a balance between buyers and sellers. In December and January, the local market hit a record low of 3.5 months of inventory.

The two most expensive housing markets in the first quarter were both in Silicon Valley: the San Jose, California, metro area, with a median price of $970,000; and San Francisco, with $770,300. The lowest-priced market was the Cumberland, Maryland, metro area, with a $67,400 median price.

rwebner@express-news.net

@rwebner