That was this mornings headline in the San Antonio Express News. It seems that San Antonio will avoid the housing downturn that the rest of the country is experiencing for now…but it will be interesting to see how 2008 plays out for us.

According to the Express News:

“San Antonio, however, seems to be escaping the brunt of the housing downturn because a strong job market and affordable prices have kept the city, as well as the rest of Texas, relatively insulated from the most distressing problems facing other parts of the country.In September, the annual new-home sales rate was 16,371 in the San Antonio area, down just 1.8 percent from the annual rate for September 2006, according to the most recent data available from the housing research firm Metrostudy. Builders this year, however, have increased incentives to buyers to unload their excess inventory.

While there were fewer new home sales and housing starts, 2007 is likely to be the third-best year on record for new-home construction in San Antonio, with builders starting 14,328 homes between September 2006 and September 2007, according to Metrostudy.

That’s a 27 percent drop from the record set between the same period in 2005 and 2006, when there were 19,600 home-starts.”