A “Home for Sale” sign is planted by Looker Drive near Ingram on June 15. San Antonio doesn’t have a problem with inventory, but rather with affordability, a reader says.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
Linda Johnson photographs flowers at the San Antonio Botanical Garden this month. San Antonio should be proud of what the Botanical Garden has become. The city shouldn’t ask it to finish its journey alone by reducing the city’s financial contribution, a reader says.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
Home pricing the problem
Re: “New housing law could curb big investors in S.A.,” SA Inc., Sunday:
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Express-News staff writer Lilly O’Neill makes the argument that the new housing bill passed by Congress, limiting institutional investors from owning more than 350 homes, could grow the housing inventory for individual buyers in San Antonio.
We don’t have an inventory problem.
On Realtor.com, there are almost 16,000 homes for sale in San Antonio.
We do have an affordability problem.
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We need to either lower prices or raise incomes. The former is more likely than the latter.
Until buyers walk away from their homes, prices will remain high. It’s possible that is San Antonio’s future.
Only then can the federal government buy these distressed properties from the county or banks and list them at discounted prices.
Every homeowner’s valuations will suffer from this, but in the end, the housing market will once again be affordable and first-time buyers can have the opportunity to own homes.
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Garden good for the city
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ push to eliminate the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s city funding is backward.
The $1.2 million the city puts toward the garden doesn’t stretch nearly as far as it did in 2019, when that agreement was first struck. In today’s economy, this is really asking it to do more with less.
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It’s also worth remembering what San Antonio is.
This is a tourist city, and the garden is part of what draws people here and keeps them here a little longer. For the people who actually live here, the Botanical Garden means something even more personal. It offers quality of life for children, families and adults alike, and it can’t be easily replaced.
San Antonio should be proud of what the Botanical Garden has become. The city shouldn’t ask it to finish that journey alone, especially not on a budget that hasn’t kept up with the cost of doing business.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Gary W. Cox
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Answer at ballot box
Re: “There’s a better way to make America more religious,” Faith, July 12:
Columnist John M. Crisp prompts us to examine the shortsighted and challenging efforts to promote Bible stories at the expense of students who are not Christian.
He points out that faith seems to be a prerequisite for election in our country, though once candidates are in office, it doesn’t seem to matter much how they behave, citing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and President Donald Trump.
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As he correctly said, “So, Christians, if you want America to be more Christian, start at the ballot box, not in the schools.”
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