Reading the SABOR Monthly Report: What the San Antonio Stats Actually Mean

SABOR's monthly MLS report is the cleanest local read on the San Antonio housing market, but almost every summary that recirculates from it misses what the numbers are actually saying. Median price went up does not mean your house is worth more. Days on market dropped does not mean buyers are back. Months of inventory at 4.5 does not mean the market is balanced across the metro.

If you're a seller pricing this month, a buyer deciding whether to wait, or a landlord-turned-seller trying to read the tea leaves, here's how to actually use the report.

What SABOR actually publishes

The San Antonio Board of Realtors releases a monthly statistical report pulled from the MLS it operates. The core table usually includes:

• Total closed sales (transactions that funded and recorded that month)
• Average sales price and median sales price
• Price per square foot (average)
• Average days on market (DOM)
• Active listings and new listings
• Pending sales
• Months of inventory
• Year-over-year percentage change on most of the above

SABOR also breaks out data by price band (under $200K, $200K–300K, etc.) and by county. That last piece is where most casual readers fumble: the headline SABOR number is not Bexar County. The report covers the MLS service area, which includes Bexar plus Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, Wilson, Frio, Karnes, La Salle, McMullen, and parts of surrounding counties. A Boerne ranchette closing and a 78207 starter home closing both sit in the same average.

Closed sales: a rearview mirror

Closed sales in, say, the October report are contracts that mostly went under contract in August or early September. Lending timelines in Texas run 30–45 days for conventional and longer for VA assumptions or anything with appraisal friction. If you want to know what the market is doing right now, the closed-sales line is the wrong place to look.

Pending sales and new listings are the leading indicators. When pendings fall two months in a row while new listings rise, inventory is about to build — closed prices react 60–90 days later. That's the lag that traps sellers who list at last quarter's comps.

Median vs. average — they tell different stories

The median is the middle transaction. The average is total dollars divided by total sales. When a single $3.2M Dominion sale closes in a slow month, the average jumps and the median barely moves. When the under-$250K band dries up (which happens whenever rates spike and first-time buyers step out), the median rises even though individual home values are flat or falling — the mix shifted upmarket.

Rule of thumb: if median is up but average is flat, the low end got squeezed out of the market. If average is up but median is flat, a handful of high-end sales pulled the mean. Neither scenario means your 1,800 sqft in Converse is worth 6% more than last year.

Months of inventory is a ratio, not a thermostat

Months of inventory = active listings ÷ monthly closed sales. A balanced market is traditionally called 6 months. San Antonio has run well below that for most of the last decade and pushed past it only in specific segments.

The trap: the metro-wide number averages a tight sub-$300K market against a slow $600K+ segment. In recent cycles it's been common to see 2–3 months of inventory under $250K and 8–10+ months above $750K in the same report. If you're selling a $900K house in Stone Oak (78258) off US-281, the 4.5-month headline is irrelevant to you. Pull the price-band table.

Days on market resets and lies a little

DOM in the SABOR report is the average for homes that closed that month. Two things to know:

• When a listing is withdrawn and relisted (common tactic to refresh a stale listing), DOM typically resets in the MLS. The home may have actually been for sale 120 days and show as 18.
• DOM counts to contract, not to close. A home that went pending in 9 days and took 45 to close still reports as 9.

A better companion metric is list-to-sale price ratio. When that drops below ~97%, sellers are giving concessions or cutting. When it sits at or above 99%, buyers are competing. SABOR publishes it; most news summaries skip it.

Price per square foot is a blunt instrument

The monthly $/sqft figure lumps a 1950s bungalow in Beacon Hill with a new-build in Alamo Ranch. It ignores lot size, condition, pool, garage count, and the gap between NEISD and SAISD attendance zones that can swing a comp by 15% on identical floor plans.

Use $/sqft to spot a directional trend over 6+ months of reports. Don't use it to price a specific house. For that, you want closed comps within the same subdivision or half-mile radius, same school zone, same year-built band, pulled from MLS — which is what a SABOR-member agent or a careful FSBO seller with a paid comp tool should be doing.

Sub-market breakouts are where the real signal lives

The countywide numbers smooth over divergence that matters:

Sub-market	Typical driver	What to watch
Inside Loop 410 urban core (78209, 78212, 78210)	Walkability, historic stock, school choice	Median, DOM — low inventory, high variance
Far North (78258, 78259, 78260)	NEISD, corporate relocations, new construction	Months of inventory in $500K+ band
Northwest (78250, 78254, Alamo Ranch)	NISD, production builders	New-listing count, builder incentives
Northeast / Converse / Schertz (78154, 78109)	Randolph AFB, Judson ISD, SCUCISD	VA-eligible pendings, DOM
Southside (78221, 78224, Brooks area)	Affordability, Toyota corridor	Absorption in sub-$250K band

SABOR's report lets you pull most of this by ZIP if you ask an agent for the ZIP-level detail or check SABOR's public stats portal. Read those, not the countywide headline.

What most people get wrong

1. Treating the headline median as "the market." It's the middle of a bimodal distribution. Your house lives in one price band and one sub-market. Read those lines.
2. Comparing month-over-month instead of year-over-year. San Antonio has strong seasonality — spring peaks, winter troughs. A January-to-February move tells you almost nothing. YoY or trailing-3-month comparisons are what matter.
3. Assuming SABOR = Bexar County. It's a 12+ county MLS footprint. Kendall County pulls the average up; Atascosa and Frio pull it down.
4. Ignoring pending sales. Pendings are the six-to-eight-week forecast. Closed sales are the rearview.
5. Using average DOM to price a listing. If inventory in your ZIP and price band has 90-day DOM, the metro 45-day figure will cost you real money in carrying costs and price cuts.
6. Confusing MLS stats with tax-roll data. BCAD's appraised values are a separate universe, set January 1 for tax purposes, and they lag market by 12–18 months. Don't quote BCAD value as market value or vice versa. If you're protesting your 2024 notice (deadline May 15 or 30 days after notice, whichever is later), SABOR comps are your evidence — not the other way around.

How to actually use the report each month

• Pull the price-band table for your target band.
• Pull pendings and new listings — not just closed — and compare to the same month last year.
• Check list-to-sale ratio as a proxy for negotiating power.
• Ignore $/sqft for pricing a specific home; use it only for 6-month directional trends.
• Cross-reference with the sub-market or ZIP detail before drawing any conclusion about your transaction.

If you're trying to turn that read into an actual decision — list now, wait, rent it out instead, buy the dip — the next step is local comps on your specific block, not another metro-level chart. Browse current San Antonio listings and rentals at /rentals, list a home FSBO at /list-your-home, or find a SABOR-member agent who'll pull your ZIP-level data at /agents.