Metro San Antonio is still better than many cities when it comes to housing affordability, but a new study by San Francisco based ApartmentList.com says the city is becoming a harder and harder place for young professionals to afford to live, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Apartment list says a fifth year public school teacher has to spend more than 20% of his or her income to rent a one bedroom apartment.
ApartmentList analyst Andrew Woo says that is still lower than the 30% point where housing is considered to be too pricey, but it is still bad news to consider with one fifth of income, not of a minimum wage worker but of a sold middle class professional, going to the most basic form of housing, it doesn't bode well for the local economy.
"If you're a teacher and your salary is barely enough to cover your rent, that doesnt leave you a whole lot of money to prepare for a down payment," Woo told News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Analysts say two mega-trends are batting the housing market for young professionals.
First, professionals in their late twenties, where that fifth year public school teacher is likely to be, are already saddled with sometimes unsustainable levels of student loan debt, and are receiving salaries which are seldom keeping up with the increasing cost of housing.
At the same time, a combination of changes in the financial industry, as well as new local and federal regulations, are pricing 'starter homes' which used to provide high quality income to young professional families, out of the market.
Those include everything from new down payment requirements to credit scores needed to qualify for a mortgage, to local regulations like 'tree ordinances' which combine to raise the price of even the lowest priced new homes.
In March, the San Antonio Board of Realtors reported that for the first time ever, the median price of a home sold in the metro area was very close to hitting the $200,000 mark, and an increasingly small percentage of homes sold in San Antonio each month, sometimes as few as six percent, are new construction.
ApartmentList's Sydney Bennett says it is one thing for minimum wage workers to be priced out of not just the housing, but in many cases the apartment market, but for a middle class professional to be squeezed out is troubling.
"A fifth year teacher would have to spend 20% of their income to afford a one bedroom rental in the city," she said.That situation is even worse in many coastal cities.
ApartementList says fully one third of the nation's cities, a teacher has to spend one third of h is or her income to rent an apartment.
The most expensive city, according to ApartmentList, is ApartmentList's own home town of San Francisco. The most reasonable housing is in Wichita Kansas.