The Business Journal of Phoenix - 12:32 PM MST Friday

Existing-home sales in the West rose 0.8 percent to an annual pace of 1.32 million in November but were 17.5 percent lower than a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest report.

The median price in the West was $351,000, down 0.8 percent from November 2005.

Nationally, sales continued to recover last month following a rise in October, suggesting a turn in the market, the group said. Existing home sales - including single-family, townhomes and condominiums - rose 0.6 percent to 6.28 million units in November from 6.24 million in October. That’s 10.7 percent below the 7.03 million-unit pace in November 2005.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $218,000 in November, 3.1 percent lower than November.

“As the housing market recovers from its correction, existing-home sales should be rising gradually during 2007 - it looks like we may have reached the low point for the current cycle in September,” said David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist. “We’ve entered a more sustainable period of home sales now, and we expect greater support for prices over time as inventory levels are eventually drawn down.”

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.24 percent in November, down from 6.36 percent in October. The rate was 6.33 percent in November 2005.

“Mortgage interest rates are the lowest they’ve been since January, and it’s the first time since August of 2005 that interest rates are lower than a year earlier,” said NAR President Pat Vredevoogd Combs. “This is increasing buying power at the same time that sellers are showing a willingness to negotiate price and terms.”

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:52 PM EST Monday
In the third quarter of 2006, Florida’s housing sector continued to mirror the national trend, showing higher inventory levels of homes available for sale in many markets and a slowdown in sales.

Across the state, sales of single-family existing homes totaled 43,395 during the three-month period, a decrease of 34 percent compared to 65,364 homes sold during the same time a year ago, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. The statewide existing-home median sales price remained stable at $247,900 in the third quarter; a year ago, it was $247,800. At the end of the second quarter of 2006, it was $254,800.

Housing in Tampa Bay is doing slightly worse, with sales declining 43 percent, to 8,009, from a year ago and 21 percent from last month’s 10,187. The median price increased 8 percent, to $234,000, from a year ago, and 1 percent from last month’s $232,200.

Tampa Bay’s prices peaked in June at $239,600.

In a new survey conducted by the University of Florida’s Center for Real Estate Studies, the threat of spiraling insurance rates was mentioned as the biggest concern, followed by the softening housing market as the second most-mentioned trend.

Still, even if a sharp downturn in the housing market occurs as some analysts predict, Florida will be less affected by it than other states because of the insulating effect of its high population growth rate, said Dr. Wayne Archer, director of UF’s Center for Real Estate Studies, in a release.

National Association of Realtors’ latest economic outlook calls for existing-home sales to be fairly stable in the fourth quarter, with 2006 expected to be the third strongest year for sales after consecutive records in 2004 and 2005.

Looking at Tampa Bay’s condominium market, sales decreased 46 percent from the same period last year, with median prices slipping by 2 percent to $165,400.

The Florida Association of Realtors provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to its more than 155,000 members in 68 boards/associations.

Web Posted: 10/17/2006 09:20 PM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

For two decades, the lament was loud and constant whenever the question arose about why so little investment was being made in downtown San Antonio housing.

No downtown grocery store meant low demand for downtown condominiums and apartments.

The opposite was true, too. Low numbers of downtown residents meant that a downtown grocery, even one half the size of suburban stores, would fail.

This Catch-22 apparently blasted apart in the past year or two. It seems an additional downtown residential project is announced nearly every month. If a downtown grocery store is on a drawing board anywhere, though, it’s a deep, dark secret.

The new wave of downtown residential developers has adopted a brave attitude: To heck with grocery stores, full speed ahead.

“If residential is built, the retail will follow” is the way Ed Cross of Cross & Co. put it to a packed Central Area Business Council luncheon last week.

“I don’t want a grocery store. We don’t need one downtown,” said another developer, James Lifshutz, currently building or planning three downtown projects.

Small produce and meat markets are already there, and more stores will materialize as necessary as residential populations rise, added Lifshutz, of the Lifshutz Cos.

Cross plans a $46 million, 246-unit apartment development called the Vistana, near Market Square. He has set aside 15,000 square feet that he hopes will be occupied by a drugstore. Drugstores these days often offer fresh produce and meats along with other traditional grocery items, he noted.

The idea that people who live downtown desire a car-less lifestyle was pooh-poohed by a partner of a 22-story downtown condo tower, the Vidorra near St. Paul Square, now in the preselling stage.

Jeff Rochelle said grocery delivery services will arise as downtown populations grow, but residents will still own cars. “They still will get out and drive. They want rapid access to freeways,” Rochelle said.

Cross, who recently switched from real estate broker to developer, said the demand for downtown housing has barely been scratched.

Downtown demand typically accounts for 5 percent to 15 percent of a metropolitan area’s households. In San Antonio, that would put central business district demand at 30,000 to 90,000 units. Downtown San Antonio now has only about 2,500 units, he said, for 5,000 to 6,000 residents.

Downtown may not be ready for 30,000 apartments or condos, but it is easy to see why the developers believe demand justifies their projects.

San Antonio’s central business district, after all, already possesses amenities that many cities can only envy.

The River Walk, the arts district theaters, parks, HemisFair Plaza, Rivercenter mall and its movie theaters, the Nix Medical Center, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, doctor offices, VIA Metropolitan Transit and its downtown circulating streetcars, and the San Antonio Museum of Art (with at least two other downtown museums planned) provide all the cornerstones for a livable downtown.

A grocery store once seemed a necessity. Now? Who needs it?

Downtown developers certainly don’t.

Jennifer Hiller
Express-News Business Writer

As the national real estate market sputters like a car on the way to a breakdown, San Antonio home sales remain robust.

One sign of the city’s good health: 150 to 175 new real estate agents stampede into the market each month.

More homebuilders, too, are arriving in San Antonio — albeit at a much less frenetic pace — vying to build a share of the 18,000 new homes anticipated this year.

In the past four years, the membership of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association has grown from 500 to 1,170 members, said Becky Oliver, executive vice president.

And while 2005 was a record year for San Antonio real estate — a year the industry relished as a once-in-a-lifetime boom — 2006 still shows every sign of breaking those records.

Eddie Gammill, division president for Stewart Title of San Antonio, receives two to three calls a week from builders looking to move into the San Antonio market.

He attributes their interest to the Fortune magazine story in December that pegged San Antonio as the nation’s best real estate market for 2006, with a projected 8.3 percent appreciation rate.

“The good news is everyone knows about us,” Gammill said. “The bad news is, there goes the neighborhood.”

A recent orientation session for new real estate agents at the offices of the San Antonio Board of Realtors was full.

“Have you had trouble parking?” asked Barbara Tarin, board chairwoman. “If you run into a problem like that, just smile. It’s a really good problem to have.”

San Antonio had 7,400 real estate agents in August, a 32 percent increase since August of last year.

“There are people making more in their first year than I did in my 20th year,” said Ron Smith, education director at the Realtors board, who received his real estate license in 1978.

Jennifer Beaudet moved to San Antonio from San Diego three months ago, leaving behind a teaching career to join her best friend in the real estate business.

The flexibility, the income potential and San Antonio’s good market attracted Beaudet. But there are other benefits.

“Here you can actually afford a home,” she said.

New real estate agents say they’ve paid at least $1,500 to $3,000 in start-up costs for things like business cards and marketing materials.

But builders face much steeper entry costs and enter into a market more slowly.

“It’s a capital-intensive business,” said Norman Dugas, a residential developer and president of Dugas Diversified Developments.

Lot availability is at an all-time low in San Antonio, so builders who can pay cash for large numbers of lots in another’s development have an advantage over smaller builders, who often must rely on financing for fewer lots, Dugas said.

Finding land and developing it into a neighborhood is another option, but it’s difficult.

It takes at least 18 months to turn raw land into lots ready for homes — a timeframe that forces builders to consider the market for the next two to five years.

Still, many builders are willing to try, and he said there’s opportunity.

“You can’t help it. You see the job growth,” Dugas said. “I guess you could say at the normal glacial pace that real estate moves, anyone walking is in a rush to get into the market.”

Several of the nation’s largest homebuilders — including Toll Brothers, KB Home, Pulte and Ryland — already have San Antonio offices. But several large regional builders have also been staking a claim here.

Among them, Dugas said, is Gehan Homes, which builds 1,200 houses a year in the Dallas, Austin and Houston areas, and has secured land in San Antonio for the first time.

Randall Allsup, manager of the San Antonio division of Metrostudy, a residential real estate research firm, said new builders continue to try to get a foothold in the market because even though a record number of homes are being built, supply is tight. Homes are selling quickly.

“Everyone feels like the sky is falling across the country, but locally things are still looking good,” he said.

Mortgage interest rates have stayed low, which has convinced fence sitters that it still might be time to buy a home, he said.

But San Antonio can’t completely avoid the ripple effect of the national real estate slowdown. Allsup said a crash on the East or West coasts would lower consumer confidence in San Antonio.

Web Posted: 06/14/2006 12:55 AM CDT
Jennifer Hiller
Express-News Business Writer

The American dream is getting pricier in San Antonio.

Home buyers are spending $11,500 more for the median-priced home this year than they did in 2005.

The median price of existing homes reached $137,100 in the first five months of the year. That’s up 9 percent over 2005, when the median price was $125,600, according to data released by the San Antonio Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.

But home sellers can continue celebrating. It’s their market.

As San Antonio’s home prices continue to edge higher, homes are moving off the market at a hasty pace.

Homes spent an average of 65 days on the market in the first five months of the year, compared with 74 days last year. In May alone, the number was 61 days on the market, compared with 66 days last year.

“San Antonio is doing well in terms of home sales and in terms of construction activity,” said Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “That’s because employment is still growing reasonably well and the population is growing reasonably well.”

San Antonio is not alone. Though much of the rest of the nation has a weakening real estate market, that’s not the case in Texas, Gaines said.

“Most of the Texas market is doing similar to San Antonio,” he said. “2006 is at least starting out the year better than 2005.”

San Antonio’s potential buyers got a little relief when an additional 3,379 existing homes came onto the market for resale in May, swelling the number of listings to more than 8,000.

That’s considered a healthy inventory for the busy summertime home sales season, although it’s still tight — a 4-month inventory. Six months is considered balanced.

But San Antonio buyers also face the tightest new-home inventory in the state.

There’s a 1.5-month supply of new homes in San Antonio. Dallas, Houston and Austin are between 2 and 2.9 months, said Jack Inselmann, vice president of the U.S. Central region for American MetroStudy, a national housing market research firm.

Inselmann said a key driver of San Antonio’s robust real estate market is existing-home sales. San Antonio families have been able to sell homes they’ve lived in for a long time, make a profit and trade up to a nicer existing or newly built home, which helps drive the new-construction market in the area.

Some national publications, including Fortune magazine, predicted 9 percent appreciation for San Antonio, but MetroStudy expects prices on existing homes may appreciate as much as 15 percent this year.

“Existing homes sell very quickly,” he said. “If people see one they like, they’d better put a contract on it before they walk out the door. You can’t wait until the next day.”

Travis Kessler, CEO of the San Antonio Board of Realtors, said the largest chunk of buyers — about 28 percent — is shopping for homes priced around the median, between $100,000 and $150,000.

About 25 percent of people are buying homes under $100,000.

And about 20.2 percent are buying in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range.

Real estate agents say houses across all price levels are moving on and off the market rapidly.

Sandi Peerman, a real estate agent with Bradfield Properties, recently had a $200,000 home go under contract in 11 days, a $150,000 house go under contract in two days, and a condo priced below $100,000 that got four offers in two days.

“They’re basically going at full price,” she said. The real estate market also has benefited from the weather, she said.

“The spring and early summer shows landscaping and yards at their very best,” Peerman said. “No one wants to look at homes when it’s cold and rainy.”

So far, sales volume is up 7 percent this year, with 9,117 home sales by the end of May. Last year there were 8,555 sales in the same period.

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 10:17 AM EDT Wednesday

In the latest Business Pulse Survey, nearly half of the respondents think the real estate market is showing signs of leveling off. Forty-six percent, or 153 out of 332 responses, signaled a warning to investors and flippers that the boom in residential real estate has peaked.

Only 21 percent, or 71 respondents, think we haven’t seen the top yet and that prices still have some upward room left. Of the rest, the responses were almost evenly divided among those that think the housing bubble has already started downward (16 percent) or that taking the flippers out will balance the market (15 percent).

“The next year or so may see a ‘hold’ pattern, but then it will begin another steady rise,” one reader wrote.

The complete results of the non-scientific poll can be seen in the June 2 print edition of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Next week’s survey is up, and we ask about Tampa Bay area drivers. A national survey said that Florida drivers are among the nation’s worst. We ask, is Florida doing enough to keep the bad drivers off the road? What can we do to improve the driving records?

Web Posted: 03/29/2006 12:00 AM CST

Adolfo Pesquera
Express-News Business Writer

If real estate developers and investors needed anyone to pinch them to make sure the rush of big deal making in 2005 wasn’t a dream, they just had to stand next to Ed Cross.

Speaking before 515 real estate professionals at a Commercial Real Estate Women forum in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cross noted developers are at a rare and privileged point in a boom cycle.

“Every bank in the city is represented in this room and wants to lend us money,” said Cross, president of Cross & Co., a broker of office and warehouse properties.

There is a surplus of cash chasing after real estate deals and multiple offers being made on commercial properties before the “For Sale” sign goes up, Cross said.

That is a far cry from 15 years ago, when the real estate crash got so bad, brokers couldn’t give away heavily discounted properties, even with seller financing.

“I don’t think it’s going to last,” Cross said, concluding enthusiasm will wane when investors regain confidence in the stock markets.

Cross doesn’t believe real estate will tank; other fundamentals are holding strong.

“What you may have, instead of several offers before you put the sign up, is you’ll have to put the sign up before you sell,” he said. “I don’t think there is going to be as much cash as we are experiencing right now.”

For this year, and in some sectors for years to come, the city should continue to see phenomenal growth. Retail developer Mark Granados and downtown champion Ben Brewer noted a greater proportion of the overall growth than in the past has come in the inner city.

A resurgence of retail in neglected inner-city corridors like Austin Highway, Southeast Military Drive and Vance Jackson Road, and the appearance of high-end residential in or near downtown are two trends unique to this decade.

If local developers do what they do best and there aren’t too many outsiders flooding the area with speculative deals, the boom should be sustainable for years, Granados said.

Office buildings have only recently recovered to the point where rents are meeting the projections developers hoped for in the early 1980s, said Chuck King, a partner in Travis Commercial Real Estate Services.

“I’ve never been more excited about the fundamentals of our market,” King said. “We’re sustaining the highest rates we’ve ever had.”

Leasing has been in the black for eight consecutive quarters and construction has been strong, King said.

The one drawback he noted was that rents aren’t keeping pace with construction costs, which are being driven up by a scarcity of materials.

In residential, there will be water rights and utilities capacity to meet demand for about 10 years, said Kelly Leach, a land dealer whose clients are national home builders.

Over the past year, the large tract builders have carved up rights to virtually all of the developable land — tens of thousands of potential lots — in West Bexar and Comal counties and East Kendall County.

To the north of San Antonio, Leach said, there will be the equivalent of another three or four developments on the scale of Stone Oak.

“This is something we’ve never seen before and it’s probably something we will never see again,” Leach said, explaining there aren’t enough water rights left in this region to build much beyond that.

Your home is your most valuable investment. So if the housing “bubble” bursts, what does it mean for San Antonio? As News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Jeff Coyle discovered, California’s loss may be our gain.

Colette Daubner and her daughter are looking at houses in San Antonio. Daubner is unfazed by news that the housing market is slowing down and interest rates are rising.

“I’m under the impression that Texas remains affordable,” says Daubner. “When I moved to Texas nineteen years ago, interest rates were 17%, so everything looks cheap to me!”

Unlike the housing markets on the east and west coasts—where prices have skyrocketed in recent years—home values in San Antonio have risen at a steady pace. Now experts across the country say the local market is undervalued.

Here is the 3rd quarter 2005 median home price in San Antonio versus other southwestern cities:

* San Antonio: $137,600
* Phoenix: $268,000
* Las Vegas: $313,000
* San Diego: $615,000

The relatively low prices are one of the reasons local real estate companies say investors are calling from all over the country.

“A lot of them have sticker shock,” says Rick Kuper of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty in Alamo Heights. “They wonder whether or not there’s been a typo in the pricing compared to coming from other major markets in the country.”

Recently, Fortune magazine ranked San Antonio the number one hottest residential market in the country, with home values expected to appreciate 8.3% in 2006.

But not everyone is celebrating the influx of investors.

“I’m just fearful,” says Rhonda Kay with Title Assurance, “that they’re not going to get their renters so then they are going to inflate the prices to make a little profit on all of their investments.”

Kay worries that investors will artificially inflate values in San Antonio beyond what the market truly demands.

“What’s going to happen a year from now is my concern,” says Kay.

Home Real Estate News

Author: Beth Bresnahan

Publishing date: 04/28/05

RISMEDIA, April 28 – Today’s affluent Baby Boomers are not slowing down, and the majority remain on the move.

The Coldwell Banker(R) Baby Boomer Real Estate Survey, an online random sampling of 363 certified Coldwell Banker Previews International(R) sales associates who market luxury homes, found that affluent baby boomer homeowners (ages 40-58) remain an upwardly mobile group.

In fact, more than half of the Baby Boomers (52 percent) who purchased a luxury home through Coldwell Banker within the last two years told their sales associate they plan to spend fewer than five years in their current home. Eighty-six percent of these homebuyers said they have purchased three or more homes throughout their lifetimes. Almost half said they have lived at their most recent residence for a period of only one to five years.

It seems that size of house also matters to this group. The Coldwell Banker Previews International sales associates indicated that 65 percent of their Baby Boomer clients made their most recent home purchases because they wanted bigger residences. A mere 17 percent were looking to scale down, while another 15 percent were buying a second or vacation home.

The typical size of a recent luxury home purchased, according to the surveyed Coldwell Banker Previews International sales associates, was 4,500 square feet or less with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a backyard. The overwhelming majority (88 percent) of these luxury homes cost approximately $1 million, while only 12 percent of the sales associates reported recent sales of homes costing more than $2 million.

The survey also indicated that 60 percent of these buyers purchased existing single-family homes, while 21 percent opted for new construction and 16 percent purchased condos/townhouses.

“Our survey clearly shows that wealthy Baby Boomers want to enjoy the rewards of their hard work,” said Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation. “They want bigger and more luxurious homes and want to remain active. They are in their peak earning years, have benefited from many years of strong stock market returns and have built tremendous equity and appreciation in their homes. These factors, along with many receiving inheritances from their parents, are allowing the luxury home market to thrive and it should be robust for years to come.”

They Know Exactly What They Want

The Coldwell Banker(R) survey shows Baby Boomers are very particular about what they look for in a luxury home, the types of improvements they want to make to the home and the areas in which they choose to live.

Coldwell Banker Previews International(R) sales associates reported that boomers were most interested in the following home amenities:

Main floor master suite, 47%
Three-car garage, 44%
One floor home, 40%
Home gym, 28%
Home theatre, 15%
Guest house, 12%
According to the sales associates surveyed, Boomers expect to make changes to their new homes:

Any renovation, 87%
Kitchen, 79%
Bathrooms, 70%
Backyard deck, 28%
Complete renovation, 27%
Bedrooms, 16%

In the opinion of the sales associates surveyed, boomers want to live in the suburbs. Here’s where
Boomers purchased homes:

Suburbs, 67%
City, 21%
Country/rural, 10%
Senior community, 1%
College town, 1%

Web Posted: 04/10/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Vicki Vaughan
Express-News Business Writer

San Antonio has long been known for its stable work force and its ability to dodge the roller-coaster ride of boom-and-bust business cycles.

But a hotbed of commercial real estate construction? The city hasn’t earned many plaudits there.

That’s changing in 2005.

The city’s healthy economy, including job growth and strong residential housing starts, has permanently altered others’ perceptions of San Antonio. From the 1.8 million-square-foot, $800 million Toyota plant that’s rising from ranchland on the South Side to the swanky Shops at La Cantera and the PGA Tour resort in the north, the city is experiencing a boom in commercial and retail construction.

The real estate maxim that housing follows jobs and retail follows rooftops is being played out across town.

In 2004, San Antonio added about 15,000 net new jobs. That growth is expected to continue as Toyota’s hiring picks up this year and corporations eye San Antonio as a possible site for expansion. Seattle-based Washington Mutual, a financial services giant, is the latest company considering San Antonio for what’s said to be a regional center.

Last year, San Antonio ranked 22nd in the nation in single-family permits for 12,700 houses. The city also set a record for home sales for the fourth consecutive year.

“We’re enjoying a very strong market,” said Phil Telisak, senior vice president at the Weitzman Group, a regional commercial real estate firm. “It’s due to the vibrancy of the San Antonio economy.”

In contrast to what happened to commercial real estate in the mid-1980s, when the oil and real estate bust combined with overbuilding to produce a toxic mix, “this time, I don’t think anything has been overdone. It has been an orderly expansion,” Telisak said.

Ernest Brown, managing director of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s San Antonio office, agrees: “It’s the most rational growth I’ve ever seen. Growth is happening because there is a demand. You don’t see apartments and retail being built without pre-leasing.”

San Antonio’s hottest areas for growth continue to be the north and the northwest, but the far West Side is the boom area of the future.

The East Side has about 65 percent of the city’s industrial space and thus isn’t entirely suitable for housing. In the northeast, The Forum at Olympia Parkway, a massive shopping center, has thrived since it opened in 2000. But now traffic congestion on Interstate 35 has stymied growth somewhat.

On the South Side, it will take time to attract more commercial and housing development, experts say, even with the boost from Toyota. In the southeast, Brooks City-Base, at Interstate 37 and S.E. Military Drive, sold land that’s now City-Base Landing Shopping Center. Here, Wal-Mart plans a supercenter and pharmaceutical maker DPT Laboratories plans an expansion.

For now, perhaps the city’s highest-profile project is the Shops at La Cantera, a 1.2 million-square-foot retail center under construction at the northwest corner of Loop 1604 and Interstate 10. The Weitzman Group defines the complex as a super-regional mall, drawing tenants from outside South Texas.

The project will introduce two anchor tenants new to San Antonio, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, as well as Dillard’s and Foley’s. And just last week, famed Fifth Avenue jeweler Tiffany & Co. announced it will build a 6,000-square-foot store at the mall.

“People will be astonished at what’s to come,” said Bob Rubenkonig of Chicago-based General Growth Properties, the project’s developer. “It says a lot about San Antonio. We’re going to open up 90 percent leased, and that’s unheard of.”

The 100-acre Shops at La Cantera is on track for a Sept. 16 opening. A second phase of 60 acres will open in late 2007.

At I-10 and La Cantera Parkway is the Rim, formerly North Rim Market. It is to include megastore Bass Pro Shops, along with restaurants and other retailers. A third million-square-foot retail complex, Regal Hills, is planned for the southeast corner of 1604 and I-10.

Investors and developers “are finally looking at the Mexican national traffic,” said Sandra Rogers, senior associate at REOC Partners in San Antonio. “They’re finally realizing how significant it really is.”

And there’s notable local wealth, too. Within a mile of Loop 1604 and I-10, the average household income is $285,364, by far the city’s highest, according to REOC Partners.

The next most affluent area is at Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway, which continues to be a favored region for development because its average household income is $102,331.

“Stone Oak is just hot,” Rogers said. “I really compare it to another Alamo Heights. People who live there want services there — and they’ve got that.”

The Stone Oak Parkway area has for several years been one of the area’s most robust for housing, and services have followed, such as Baptist Health Systems’ North Central Baptist Hospital, which was doubled in size at a cost of more than $100 million.

“We believe the North Side will continue to grow, especially at Stone Oak and Bulverde,” said Kent Wallace, chief executive officer of Baptist Health Care Systems.

Methodist Hospital also likes the area. The company has bought about 38 acres in the area for a possible new hospital.

But even as Stone Oak continues to grow, developers are turning their attention to the west, because growth on the North Side is reaching its limits. The 28,000-acre Camp Bullis and the 4,000-acre Camp Stanley, federal installations, can’t be touched, and development in the north also is constricted by regulations governing what’s built over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.

“On the west, you’re off the aquifer, so building costs are less, yet it isn’t flat, so the topography is interesting,” said Brown of Grubb & Ellis. “And that’s where jobs are growing.”

At Westover Hills, which lies off Texas 151, “you have 23,000 or so white-collar jobs,” Brown said. “That adds up to tremendous growth.”

Brown expects commercial development in the west to occur along Loop 1604 and Loop 410. But outside 1604, about 65,000 houses are planned, enough to add population equivalent to present-day Corpus Christi, he said.

Not everyone thinks this is good. “It’s perfectly consistent with the way the city has grown since the 1950s,” said Char Miller, professor of history and urban studies at Trinity University. “Find open land and develop.” Those who move to the west won’t escape traffic jams, because “you’re just taking them with you.”

Miller’s colleague, Richard Butler, a Trinity professor of economics and urban studies, said it’s important not to let growth get ahead of infrastructure. “Look at Austin,” Butler said. “They grew like crazy, so they didn’t plan for transportation, for water.”

A key will be continued job growth. Butler praised Westover Hills, Marty Wender’s 3,500-acre development that is home to campus-styled corporate complexes, for its planning and light density.

“If you want to keep attracting businesses out there,” Butler said, “you’ll need more that’s master-planned like Westover Hills.”

At Westover Hills, Wender said a number of present tenants are planning to expand, including World Savings & Loan Association. It’s Westover Hills’ biggest employer and is planning its ninth structure; it has almost 2,800 employees and projects 4,000.

QVC Network Inc. has additional land for expansion, as does the Capital Group Cos. Inc. Hartford Insurance plans to double in size, with 450 employees projected. The development recently got another new tenant in Baptist Hospital System, which announced last month it plans a 40-acre campus to be anchored by a three-story medical office building.

Also, Methodist Healthcare System officials have taken an option to buy land on the far West Side near Loop 1604 and Culebra Road. The company has said it wants to lock in the land prices now.

All of San Antonio will benefit when a $340.6 million face-lift of San Antonio International Airport is completed as part of a five-year capital improvement plan.

Plans call for the demolition of the 1947-era Terminal 2 and the construction of a glossy, $51 million Terminal B, along with a two-tier roadway expansion that will make it easier to drop off and pick up passengers. A shortage of parking will be eased with a $40 million parking garage that will boost the number of spaces by 50 percent to about 9,000.

The new terminal and parking garage should be completed by late 2007 or early 2008, spokesman David Hebert said.

“We’ll never be a hub,” developer Wender said. “We’re not going to solve that problem.” But he pointed out that tourists “love our airport” because it’s a quick and inexpensive cab ride from downtown, and the updates will give first-time visitors a better first impression.

The prospect of Toyota and high-end retailers coming to town has perhaps drawn attention away from the city’s rapidly expanding public universities.

At UTSA’s main campus, an $83.7 million Biotechnology, Science and Engineering Building will open in the fall, said Charles Lampe, director of facilities planning. Other projects planned or underway include a $10.5 million research lab, a $5.5 million dining hall and a $9.45 million parking garage.

Westover Hills also is home to one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation. Northwest Vista College has more than 9,000 students and is growing so quickly that “we have about half of our classes being taught in portables right now,” said Jeff Hassmann, assistant to the president. “We’re at the point where we can’t grow unless we have more facilities.”

An expansion would require a bond issue, but none is yet planned. The college’s leaders envision an addition of 336,000 square feet costing $86.8 million.

On the South Side, Texas A&M University plans to build a campus and business leaders are enthusiastic.

“I’m far more excited about the Texas A&M campus than I am about Toyota,” Grubb & Ellis’ Brown said.

He noted that Austin’s explosive growth has been credited in part to the presence of the University of Texas at Austin; as San Antonio’s colleges grow, so will its ability to attract employers.

“Businesses come to San Antonio for labor and skilled labor above all,” Brown said. “And universities are all about skilled labor.”