San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg spoke on the efforts to provide housing for San Antonio residents, and the assistance the Apartment Association provides.
“The San Antonio Apartment Association is a critical partner in our efforts to provide quality housing for our residents and a foundational part to our approach to an equitable economy,” he said.
Nirenberg said the rental industry collectively contributes $22.5 billion to the local economy each year.
With the goal of providing affordable housing and fighting homelessness, San Antonio was the first city in the country to meet rehousing goals in October, according to Nirenberg.
Under the initiative, Nirenberg said approximately 1,900 families have been rehoused.
Will McIntosh, global head of research for USAA Real Estate Group, said San Antonio has continued to grow and has been doing well compared to overall national data.
“San Antonio has continued to do relatively well,” he said. “It has been driven by job growth. It has been driven by population growth. We are the fastest growing city in the country.”
McIntosh said that he believes a recession will happen nationally, due to the aligning of economic circumstances.
“We do believe that we are going to have a recession here in the U.S.,” he said. “We feel very strongly about it, and a lot of things have lined up to suggest that.”
McIntosh said the unemployment rate has continued to stay low and job growth has continued to do well, but he expects to see a lag in those numbers, causing the unemployment rate to go up on the national level.
“The good news is that, as we move on through the year, I do believe that the feds will start moving again to stimulate the economy and get it back going again,” he said.
According to McIntosh, the affordability of single-family homes has decreased, which has caused apartments and other rental properties to become more attractive to buyers waiting for better interest rates.
Cindi Reed, director of sales for ApartmentData.com, said San Antonio had a new supply of 5,756 and an absorption of -484 in 2022.
The absorption is a significant decrease from the 2021 number of 11,985 and the 2020 number of 6,718.
“We have 7,600 units planned for delivery in 2023,” she said. “This is the largest delivery since 2017 in the city. Coming off the negative absorption in 2022, we have to hope that the absorption picks up again to absorb these units, and it is all going to depend on job growth and what is going to happen with inflation and the recession and so forth.”
The top six submarkets in the area for new units in 2022 were Highway 151/SeaWorld, Thousand Oaks/Stone Oak/281 North, New Braunfels/Seguin, Leon Springs/Boerne/Kerrville, Downtown/Southtown/Brackenridge and Windcrest/Universal City.
Reed said expectations for 2023 are still cloudy, but experts are optimistic for the San Antonio market.
