San Antonio Multifamily Report – October 2024
Short-term supply is still taking its toll on this market.
San Antonio’s strong job and population growth supports its fundamentals, but high supply and economic uncertainty continue to pressure rents and investment activity. The average advertised asking rent slid 0.1 percent on a trailing three-month basis through August, to $1,257. The figure was also down 2.4 percent year-over-year, while the U.S. rate improved 0.8 percent. Occupancy in stabilized properties decreased 80 basis points year-over-year, to 91.4 percent, as of July.
Job growth decelerated 2.4 percent, or 23,800 net jobs, in the 12 months ending in June, trailing only Las Vegas (3.5 percent) among major markets and well above the 1.3 percent U.S. rate. Only the information sector lost jobs, down 800 positions. Meanwhile, San Antonio’s unemployment rate marked a 20-basis-point month-over-month improvement to 4.0% in July, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, outperforming the U.S. (4.3 percent) and Texas (4.1 percent). Education and health services led job gains, adding 6,200 positions. UT San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio have announced a merger by 2025, which would create the state’s third-largest public research university. In addition, the data center industry is growing rapidly.
Deliveries in 2024 through August totaled 5,944 units, with another 17,531 units underway, even as starts slowed. Meanwhile, investors traded just $270 million in multifamily assets, for a price per unit down some 10 percent year-to-date, to $108,416, as of August.
