Living in San Antonio, TX

Bexar County

San Antonio's identity in this build is "Military City, USA" in a way no single dollar figure fully captures: Joint Base San Antonio -- combining Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and Randolph Air Force Base into the largest joint base in the Department of Defense -- is the region's single biggest employer, cited as generating $55.1 billion in economic output and supporting roughly 240,000 direct and indirect jobs as of 2023. That's a genuinely different economic anchor than Austin's tech boom 80 miles north: San Antonio's job base runs on the military, healthcare, and a real tourism economy built around the River Walk and the Alamo (11.5 million and 4 million annual visitors respectively, with tourism and hospitality supporting more than 145,000 jobs and a cited $17.4 billion in annual economic impact), not one hot industry. San Antonio is also the largest majority-Hispanic city in the country -- 64.6% of the population is Hispanic, with deep Tejano cultural roots dating to the city's 1718 Spanish colonial founding -- which shows up in the food, language, and civic culture in a way that's distinct from Austin's or Dallas's. On cost, the contrast with Austin is stark and worth stating directly: San Antonio's median home sale price runs around $265,000, roughly half of Austin's city-proper figure, with overall cost of living cited around 8%-9% below the national average -- though property taxes complicate that affordability story, as detailed below.

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Housing

Median sale price (San Antonio city)$265,000

Median sale price of $264,856 (rounded to $265K here), down 1.7% YoY over that window; $155/sqft, down 3.1% YoY. Homes selling in ~60 days with 2 offers on average -- a "somewhat competitive" but not overheated market per Redfin's own characterization. Cited as roughly 36% below the national median sale price.

Median sale price (Bexar County)Not yet verified

Taxes

Local effective property tax rate2.27%

Not independently sourced at the Bexar County level this session. Texas carries no income tax statewide. See the Texas hub page for the statewide property tax context -- do not treat that figure as San Antonio-specific.

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The tradeoffs

Pros

Deep, diversified job base anchored by the largest joint military base in the DoD (Fort Sam Houston, Lackland AFB, Randolph AFB), not a single-industry economy; a real tourism and hospitality sector (River Walk, the Alamo, the city's Spanish colonial missions -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site) supporting well over 100,000 jobs; significantly more affordable housing than Austin or the coastal Texas metros; deep, historically rooted Hispanic/Tejano cultural identity, not a recent demographic shift; no state income tax.

Cons

Housing is cheap relative to Austin, but property taxes are not -- Bexar County's effective rate is cited around 1.73% county-only and up to roughly 2.27%-2.5% combined with city, school district, and other local entities, among the higher effective burdens in this file; healthcare costs run an estimated 27% above the national average even though overall cost of living is below it; summers are long and hot; the tech-sector wage growth driving Austin's job market is not the same story here -- San Antonio's economy is steadier but is not chasing the same high-growth-industry premium.

Who this fits

Best for: Military families and retirees relocating near Joint Base San Antonio, and affordability-focused buyers who want a major Texas metro without Austin- or Dallas-level home prices.

Maybe not for you if: Buyers specifically chasing the highest-growth tech-sector job market in Texas, or the lowest possible property tax burden, should look at Austin's job market and a lower-property-tax county respectively -- San Antonio's advantage is housing affordability and job-base stability, not either of those.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-21. Independent research; see individual metric entries above for source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.