As the national real estate market sputters like a car on the way to a breakdown, San Antonio home sales remain robust.

One sign of the city's good health: 150 to 175 new real estate agents stampede into the market each month.

More homebuilders, too, are arriving in San Antonio — albeit at a much less frenetic pace — vying to build a share of the 18,000 new homes anticipated this year.

In the past four years, the membership of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association has grown from 500 to 1,170 members, said Becky Oliver, executive vice president.

And while 2005 was a record year for San Antonio real estate — a year the industry relished as a once-in-a-lifetime boom — 2006 still shows every sign of breaking those records.

Eddie Gammill, division president for Stewart Title of San Antonio, receives two to three calls a week from builders looking to move into the San Antonio market.

He attributes their interest to the Fortune magazine story in December that pegged San Antonio as the nation's best real estate market for 2006, with a projected 8.3 percent appreciation rate.

(Kin Man Hui/Express-News)

Home builders are vying to build some of the 18,000 new homes anticipated in the city this year, like this one in the Stone Oak area.

"The good news is everyone knows about us," Gammill said. "The bad news is, there goes the neighborhood."

A recent orientation session for new real estate agents at the offices of the San Antonio Board of Realtors was full.

"Have you had trouble parking?" asked Barbara Tarin, board chairwoman. "If you run into a problem like that, just smile. It's a really good problem to have."

San Antonio had 7,400 real estate agents in August, a 32 percent increase since August of last year.

"There are people making more in their first year than I did in my 20th year," said Ron Smith, education director at the Realtors board, who received his real estate license in 1978.

Jennifer Beaudet moved to San Antonio from San Diego three months ago, leaving behind a teaching career to join her best friend in the real estate business.

The flexibility, the income potential and San Antonio's good market attracted Beaudet. But there are other benefits.

"Here you can actually afford a home," she said.

New real estate agents say they've paid at least $1,500 to $3,000 in start-up costs for things like business cards and marketing materials.

But builders face much steeper entry costs and enter into a market more slowly.

"It's a capital-intensive business," said Norman Dugas, a residential developer and president of Dugas Diversified Developments.

Lot availability is at an all-time low in San Antonio, so builders who can pay cash for large numbers of lots in another's development have an advantage over smaller builders, who often must rely on financing for fewer lots, Dugas said.

Finding land and developing it into a neighborhood is another option, but it's difficult.

It takes at least 18 months to turn raw land into lots ready for homes — a timeframe that forces builders to consider the market for the next two to five years.

Still, many builders are willing to try, and he said there's opportunity.

"You can't help it. You see the job growth," Dugas said. "I guess you could say at the normal glacial pace that real estate moves, anyone walking is in a rush to get into the market."

Several of the nation's largest homebuilders — including Toll Brothers, KB Home, Pulte and Ryland — already have San Antonio offices. But several large regional builders have also been staking a claim here.

Among them, Dugas said, is Gehan Homes, which builds 1,200 houses a year in the Dallas, Austin and Houston areas, and has secured land in San Antonio for the first time.

Randall Allsup, manager of the San Antonio division of Metrostudy, a residential real estate research firm, said new builders continue to try to get a foothold in the market because even though a record number of homes are being built, supply is tight. Homes are selling quickly.

"Everyone feels like the sky is falling across the country, but locally things are still looking good," he said.

Mortgage interest rates have stayed low, which has convinced fence sitters that it still might be time to buy a home, he said.

But San Antonio can't completely avoid the ripple effect of the national real estate slowdown. Allsup said a crash on the East or West coasts would lower consumer confidence in San Antonio.