Real estate and other stuff

Admittedly, residential real estate in San Antonio doesn't look as good as it did last month, with the pace of sales slowing 9.5% in September. The median home price dropped to $145,700 from last September's $147,700. This comes after several months of 1% to 2% appreciation, though, compared to other cities.  However, the economic prospects are good for a turnaround next spring.

Employment growth in health care and government, including the military, continues to help keep San Antonio's real estate market stable. The unemployment rate in September was unchanged at 5%. The job market gained 3,500 jobs, mostly "back to school" positions. Seasonal jobs, such as in tourism and construction, contributed to some 2,800 job losses, and the financial and professional business services sector gave up 500 jobs. Local government, health care, and education added 7,300 jobs in total. Going back to September 2007, the San Antonio metro area grew in job numbers by 2.1%.

The Pentagon is planning to spend $3 billion on various projects in San Antonio over the next few years, only partly as a result of 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations. The Air Force will break ground next spring on a $900 million Airmen Training Complex at Lackland AFB, on San Antonio's southwest side.

This will be the biggest USAF construction project anywhere for the near future, and by 2014, 20 new structures will be built. They include a dormitory and eight 1,200-person training complexes that will be served by four dining halls to replace the Recruiting, Housing & Training facilities, some of which are around 50 years old.

The project will be paid for by military construction funds, unlike the $1.8 billion in BRAC expenditures planned for Fort Sam Houston for the next three years. Work will begin in the spring after a new basic training course is rolled out at Lackland. The Gateway to the Air Force is already planning to lengthen the training time for enlisted men and women from 6.5 to 8.5 weeks. Those new dorms, dining halls, and training facilities will be a welcome addition for trainees and staff.

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According to a recent study conducted by researchers at San Antonio's Trinity University, the economic impact of San Antonio's health care and bioscience industry grew by $1 billion to $16.3 billion from last year. In addition, 3,600 jobs were added. Currently, 116,417 of jobs in healthcare account for one out of seven in the San Antonio area and represent $4.5 billion in wages. These positions include delivery of medical services, bio-research, health insurance, and related industries.

These jobs do not include those of approximately 12,000 staff and faculty positions at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, or the University of Texas Health Science Center, which total $775 million in payroll. On the way are new hospitals under construction by Methodist Healthcare System, Christus Santa Rosa Health Care, and Baptist Health System. These will contribute even more to the city's wealth of healthcare, research, and associated jobs.

The South Texas Medical Center is one of my favorite areas of San Antonio for investing in single-family homes for rental or rehabbing or condo/apartment complexes.  The Medical Center, as it is known, comprises 45 institutions, including medical, dental and nursing schools, medical treatment and research facilities, and 12 hospitals. It is located on over 900 acres (and still growing) on the northwest side of the city in an area of built-out neighborhoods and established commercial, office, and retail, along with some vacant tracts of land on its north boundaries.

Situated close to the Medical Center are the headquarters of insurance giant USAA and Valero Energy, as well as the second-largest University of Texas campus. Clarke American printing and West tele-services also have regional headquarters nearby. Together, these major employers and universities attract a steady stream of tenants and home buyers.

A monarch on the jatropha bush, stoking up before the big migration to Mexico.

A giant swallowtail feeding on the flame acanthus. It may have been one of the caterpillars on the lemon tree.

A bordered patch, "one of the most variable butterfly species in the world," according to my butterfly book.

I only got two shots of this beautiful white-angled sulphur before it fluttered away.

While previewing and showing homes, I have run into situations where I felt that pets were being neglected. I've unwound a puppy who tangled his rope around a tree and couldn't reach his water bowl (which I refilled). I've let dogs outside (and back in) who desperately needed to do their business. I've even cleaned the overflowing litter box of a poor lonely kitty whose owners were obviously out of town.

I also have had several clients who are phobic about animals, so I need to know that they are in the house so I can keep the pets away from them. I usually scout out the house and round up the cats and dogs, either petting them or corraling them somewhere while my client looks around.

I know sellers are told that if they have pets, they should somehow disguise that fact for showings. Or at least tidy up and put the pets away. Many people just can't take off work to come home and take their pets away for a couple hours.

Anyway, here's my first literal pet peeve:  cat food placed in the same room as the litter box. Would you want to eat your meals near the toilets in a public restroom? Cats have a better sense of smell than most of us crazy humans do, too. Please put the litter box in the utility room and the food and water bowls in the kitchen.

Second pet peeve: dogs in crates or cages in the bedroom. I love dogs, but when my clients and I walk into the master bedroom and suddenly hear a menacing growl, I for one stop having a good time. Barking dogs are actually better--at least we know they're there. Sellers, please ask your listing agent to note in the showing instructions that a dog will be in the house, and in what room.

Third pet peeve: pets kept in the garage during a showing, especially with the light off. Okay, if the sellers would just put their pets in the garage for an hour or so and then run back home to let them out after the showing, I could live with that. But frequently I suspect the poor things will be left in the garage all day, where they will have to breathe gasoline fumes and won't get any daylight. Sellers, please put your pets in a ventilated room with a window, or at least leave the light on if they're going to be there all day.

I don't know if anything can be done about these issues. If anybody has a diplomatic way to talk to clients about how to take care of their pets while their house is on the market, please chime in. Any other pet peeves?

To reward you for reading this, here are photos of my two pets, Kitty and Miles:

The mortgage and housing crises damaging real estate markets in other parts of the country have left Texas relatively unscathed. For example, the average home price in the New Braunfels area is $267,000, up from around $245,000 a year ago. The average home price in 2001 was $140,000.

New Braunfels is located northeast of San Antonio on the busy IH-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin on the edge of the Hill Country. It is situated on the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers east of Canyon Lake. It is a popular tourist destination as well as a retirement haven. Home values also have risen in neighboring San Marcos and San Antonio.

In addition, the number of foreclosures in the state has gone down over the last year, from 16 percent last July. This is due in large part to the state's refusal to allow full-price equity lending. Although Texas made home-equity loans legal in 1997, homeowners can only borrow up to 80 percent of their property's appraised value.

Adapted from the Texas Real Estate Research Center

Lackland AFB is home to the 37th Training Wing, the largest in the Air Force. It provides basic military training as well as training in professional and technical skills, and English language for the other military services as well as the Air Force, government agencies, and US allies. It is the only entry processing station for USAF enlisted Basic Military Training (BMT). Lackland currently has six technical training squadrons, from which more than 86,000 students graduate every year.

When Kelly AFB was closed as a result of BRAC 1995, Lackland took on a flying mission and incorporated the adjacent 2-mile-long runway.  Kelly also bequeathed Security Hill to Lackland, host to the Air Combat Command's 67th Network Warfare Wing and the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency.

(The former Kelly AFB is now known as Port San Antonio, a foreign trade zone with tenants that include Boeing , Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney.)

The Air Force's largest medical facility, Wilford Hall Medical Center, the 59th Medical Wing, is also located at Lackland AFB. The latest BRAC (2005) recommendations involve consolidating Wilford Hall and Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), the world-class burn ward and Level 1 trauma care center, to comprise the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. BAMC would handle all inpatient care as well as all trauma and emergency medical care.

Wilford Hall Medical Center would be known as SAMMC-South and will become a full-service ambulatory care center. It will offer medical and surgical outpatient services and host a premier Eye Center of Excellence.

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Okay, these homes aren't in the highest price ranges ($75,000-$95,000) or snootiest neighborhoods in town, but still they represent a significant number of those on the MLS. The following are the actual, only photos of the listing, and in some cases I've also included the agents' remarks:

This photo has an eerie, David-Lynch-film quality to it.

No idea.

A house zoned multi-family and being used as a beauty salon.

"VERY COZY 3 BEDROOM 1 BATH BRING YOUR BUYERS THEY WILL NOT BE DISAPOINTED!!"

"AGENTS SHOW AND SELL!!! PUT THIS ONE ON YOUR LIST WILL NOT LAST MUST SEE!!"

"VERY CUTE 3B 1BTH AGENTS MUST SEE!! SHOW AND SELL! SHOWS VERY WELL WILLL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED!!"

(Yes, it's the same listing office.)

Not a bad photo, but which house is for sale?

When there are only two photos of the house, like as not the second photo is almost identical to the first. In fact, many times it is identical. How much more can you learn about these houses from viewing the second photo?

I guess the agents felt that as long as they had gone to all the trouble of taking two photos, they should upload them both and get their two cents' worth!

At first I thought the grackles had paused on my potted lemon tree on their way to roost in the HEB supermarket parking lot. Those pesky birds had deposited a couple of yucky blobs on the leaves.

Then I saw a bizarre object on one of the stems. It looked like a rough, gray, stubby snake with a big head.

You guessed it! They are caterpillars, in two different stages of development. If all goes well, they will turn into giant swallowtail butterflies, which can have a wingspan of up to 6 inches. The caterpillars are called orange dogs because of their love of all kinds of citrus plants. If they feel threatened, they poke out a couple of horns that exude a bitter odor. I did not threaten them though. My husband relocated a couple of them to the lime tree and a rue plant.

Giant swallowtail butterflies feed on the nectar of lantana flowers, which we have in abundance. So watch this space--if I can get some photos of these beauties, I'll post them here!

The Air Force's deployment and personnel processes are being combined in a transfer of the AEF Center from Langley AFB in Virginia to Randolph AFB, just northeast of San Antonio, Texas. Earlier in the year, AFPC's readiness division and casualty matters division were combined with AEF operations to create the Air and Space Expeditionary Force and Personnel Operations Directorate.  The directorate seems to have met their goal of keeping disruption to a minimum during the transition. Tasks included readying the AFPC's infrastructure by migrating computer systems, rewiring networks, increasing bandwidth, and bringing systems online in the new location.

The ceremony on September 26 marked the achievement of full operational capability for the AEFC Force and Operations Directorate at the Air Force Personnel Center.

Randolph has a large impact on the local area, estimated as contributing more than 7,500 jobs. It is estimated that a net loss of only 0.1% of those jobs in the next few years would come as a result of BRAC's reshuffling of military and civilian positions.