Local homes sales fell slightly in September after a record-breaking summer, as a tight supply of homes on the market is making it difficult for San Antonians to find an affordable place to live.

Last month, 2,523 homes were sold in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area, a decline of 2.2 percent from September 2017, according to data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors. It was only the sixth time sales have dropped since the local market’s recovery began in 2011, as San Antonio’s growing economy and population have fueled the market’s rise.

The median price of a home in the metro area was $224,600 in September, a 5.2 percent increase from $213,500 a year earlier, according to SABOR. Five years ago, in September 2013, the median price was $168,800, 33 percent below last month.

The sales drop comes as San Antonio, and large parts of the U.S., are grappling with shortages of homes on the market because developers haven’t been able to build enough homes to satisfy demand. Late last month, the National Association of Realtors reported that nationwide pending home sales fell slightly in August for the eighth month in a row.

“Affordability is hindering buyers, and those affordability issues come from lack of inventory, particularly in moderate price points,” the NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release.

Jack Inselmann, an economist with Metrostudy who analyzes the local market, cautioned against reading too much in the one-month decline.

“Our housing inventory continues to remain very tight,” he said. “That being said, I would look for the pattern to continue for multiple months before I would have any reason to cause alarm.”

The local area’s inventory of available homes, a statistic that measures how long it would take for the supply of homes on the market to run out at the current rate of demand, dropped to 3.6 months in September from 3.7 months in August, according to SABOR. That is extremely tight by historical standards; an inventory of six months indicates a balance between buyers and sellers.

“The best thing to do in this market is be prepared before you even start looking, meaning getting pre-approved and knowing what you’re willing to compromise,” SABOR Chair Lorena Peña said in the news release. “This will help you make a decision faster and be competitive.”

A recent rise in mortgage rates has also made homebuying more difficult. The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 4.9 percent last week, its highest level since February 2011, according to Freddie Mac. The rate was about 3.5 percent a year ago.

Despite last month’s sales drop, San Antonio is still on track to set another sales record this year after a record 30,685 homes were sold in 2017. Between January and September, 25,073 homes were sold in the metro area, which is 6.7 percent higher than at the same time in 2017, according to SABOR’s data.

There are signs that the local supply of homes could loosen up: Inselmann reported in August that local builders started construction of 3,271 homes in the second quarter of this year, a 9 percent increase from the same period in 2017.

The NAR recently reported that sales of existing homes — in other words, homes that are not new construction — hit a plateau in August after four months of decline, although sales are still declining in some parts of the southern and western U.S.

“With inventory stabilizing and modestly rising, buyers appear ready to step back into the market,” Yun said in a news release. But inventory “is still far from a healthy level and new home construction is not keeping up to satisfy demand.”

Richard Webner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering real estate and development. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rwebner@express-news.net | Twitter: @RWebner