Web Posted: 07/18/2005 11:55 AM CDT

Aïssatou Sidimé
Express-News Business Writer

With all the recent discussion in the media about a possible housing bubble, it can be frustrating for homebuyers to decide whether a house is overpriced.

Prices are affected by a house’s features, its location and the local economy. And when weighing any decision about a particular property, buyers should scrutinize the price of each individual property, sales in an area and economic trends in trying to figure out whether a house is in a potential bubble area, experts said.

Bradfield Properties real estate agent Mike Hermes tells shoppers to start by comparing the asking price per square foot with houses that sold recently in the same area. Prices should be adjusted for upgrades, such as ceramic tile or jetted tubs, or sore spots, such as proximity to large power lines or poor floor plans.

Consumers can get a free, rough appraisal at the Web site www.homegain.com.

Agents also recommend checking the length of time a house sits on the market in an area and how many times the price has been reduced. Generally, a property that sits longer than three months without serious offers is priced too high.

Buyers should also look into the number of rental properties or absentee owners on the street. That’s because owners tend to rush to sell rentals during an economic downturn, which could cause a big increase in the number of houses for sale at the same time and depress prices, said Freddie Mac spokeswoman Eileen Fitzpatrick.

In an inflated market, buyers also need to examine how fast prices are rising.

The average appreciation rate for Texas was 3.77 percent last year, and for San Antonio it was 5.34 percent, according to a report by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight Enterprise.

The office’s Housing Price calculator, at www.ofheo.gov, can calculate the total appreciation for a house by accessing its sales history.

Nationwide, the historic average is 5 percent growth per year, said Freddie Mac deputy chief economist Amy Crews Cutts.

Some neighborhoods, such as Alamo Heights or Southern Florida communities, historically attract higher prices because of the location.

“In Alamo Heights there’s no new construction and it’s landlocked,” said Armando Barbosa, owner and mortgage broker at Vision Mortgage Co. in San Antonio.

That San Antonio neighborhood is averaging a 10.4 percent increase annually.

That’s far less than increases of more than 24 percent in places such as San Diego, Las Vegas and Palm Bay, Fla., where prices are probably growing too quickly, said Federal Housing Finance Board deputy chief economist Joe McKenzie. He suggests buyers think twice about properties in areas showing more than 20 percent growth a year because they are far exceeding income growth.

The stability of the local economy will be the biggest factor in whether housing prices continue to rise, experts say. A shift in the local economy — particularly in one that’s built mainly on a single industry such as technology or defense — will immediately cause prices to collapse.

After tech stocks crashed, housing prices in Austin went from growing at more than double the Texas average — peaking at about 14 percent in early 2001 — to about 1 percent growth for much of 2003 and 2004, according to the Office of Federal Housing Oversight Enterprise.

The Dominion near San Antonio was growing at between 12 percent and 15 percent for many years, but now has “quite a glut” of houses listed for sale because of cuts in employment among the high-paid executives who tended to buy homes in that area, Barbosa said.

Historically, prices eventually rebound, economists say. It took four years for the San Antonio market to recover from the S&L-induced price drop in the late ’80s, Hermes said.

Freddie Mac’s Cutts recommends that prospective buyers consider whether they would plunk down a down payment in a high-priced neighborhood if its growth rate slowed or were flat.

“If the cost of renting is the same as buying, and the growth rate is just zero or 5 percent, it’s still a pretty good deal to buy,” she said.

Web Posted: 07/08/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Adolfo Pesquera
Express-News Business Writer

East of Kirby, the building boom was mostly affordable housing until H.E. Butt Grocery Co. pioneered at FM 78 and Rittiman/Foster roads.

By this fall, the supermarket will have plenty of company as two shopping centers prepare to open.

Beside a Walgreen’s opposite the supermarket, the partnership of KMBG Properties is getting ready to put the roof on a 17,000-square-foot retail center.

The KMBG development company was formed six years ago to combine the leasing and property management talents of RFM Commercial and the general contractor resources of Kopplow Construction Co. The last-name initials of the partners — Ed Kopplow, Dick McCaleb, Mark Bauer and Tom Green — form the KMBG name.

Meanwhile, El Paso developer Mimco Inc. has cleared land on a 10.5-acre site just west of the supermarket. Rittiman Pointe will be the larger of the two centers with 70,000 square feet of retail shops planned.

The first phase will be a 35,000-square-foot building anchored by a Peter Piper Pizza, said Mimco President Bob Ayoub.

Though Kopplow is the builder on Woodlake Market, that’s not always the case with KMBG projects. Both parent companies have thriving third-party businesses. Kopplow has been around since 1976 and is one of San Antonio’s premier commercial construction firms. RFM has been active in property management and new development in Bulverde and Boerne.

McCaleb credits the retail growth to the growing presence of affordable housing. But for years retail development lagged, and there are still large tracts of grassland.

“The new residential growth has just exploded,” McCaleb said. “This is middle America that’s living out there. Land is inexpensive, it’s easy to build. Residents have easy access to all the freeways.

“It’s an intersection that’s been overlooked for years,” McCaleb admitted, but it was a critical time for KMBG to jump in. “There’s a lot of vacant land, but every tract is either under development right now or is in the entitlement phase.”

Woodlake Market will have a Washington Mutual branch on its east end with a drive-through, he said. There are also agreements with UPS Store and Great Clips. There could be as many as 11 tenants. There are also plans for five separate buildings that could be eateries, an automotive repair shop or even a second bank.

Green said KMBG chose to develop only 2 acres of its 13-acre commercial plat right now.

“The opening is two to three months away,” Green said.

There is a tentative plan to build a mini-storage facility on the back end later, McCaleb added.