Moving to San Antonio, TX

REWahoo said:
Wow. Not many folks can claim to have been born in Terlingua, TX!
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See, even Texans get impressed by the tough souls who dare live in Terlingua, I told ya. :LOL:

PS. By the way, I don't remember how I found these blogs by Terlingua residents, but I learned that it is close to Big Bend NP which I like to visit some day.

And back on San Antonio, I have not revisited its River Walk and The Alamo for more than 20 years. I will do that in a future RV trip. And I have not been to Austin either.
 
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Beststash said:
You might consider Wimberley - it has a village atmosphere and only about 30min. from San Marcos which has the hospitals, etc. Years ago it was mostly just "cedar choppers" but has a lot of Hill Country beauty and culture. Maintenance would be pretty low becuase it doesn't have a lot of soil, mostly rock. Does have lots of deer.
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And it seems that EVERYBODY has already discovered Wimberley. Expect bad traffic there, too, soon. My barber is there and and you can already tell it's about to jump the shark because famous people/celebrities are now buying property up all around the area..
 
REWahoo said:
O... I had a vasectomy at Wilford Hall.
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I also had the "pleasure" of having that procedure at WH and what an experience it was; the E-6 surgery tech was pretty much telling the O-3 resident MD what to do. Gotta love that "free" healthcare!!! :LOL:
 
ExFlyBoy5 said:
I also had the "pleasure" of having that procedure at WH and what an experience it was; the E-6 surgery tech was pretty much telling the O-3 resident MD what to do. Gotta love that "free" healthcare!!! :LOL:
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Nothing like that for me. The E-6 that did mine worked without an assistant. :)
 
NW-Bound said:
Big Bend NP which I like to visit some day.

And back on San Antonio, I have not revisited its River Walk and The Alamo for more than 20 years. I will do that in a future RV trip. And I have not been to Austin either.
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Big Bend is one of my favorite NP's to visit... I've been there 6 or 7 times in the past 40+ years and one of the things I really like is, it stays the same. Maybe a few more "identifiable" trails for 4 wheeling but almost no commercialization in or around the park.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about San Antonio or Austin... If it's been 20+ years since you have been there, be prepare for seeing major changes, and not for the better. It's been a few years since I've been to the River Walk and Alamo but at that time they were still "intact" as I remember. As a reminder, there are fewer places on this Earth that seem to be as hot and humid as the River Walk in the summer. (especially, early May thru late September)
 
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Taking a detour from discussing the various TX locations:

Close to 10 years ago my DW sat me down and asked me to consider moving early to our target location for retirement. The concept was to test-drive the community before retirement. At that point neither of us had spent more than a week in that area. Our careers were in a perfect status to make the move, and we did so right at the end of the Great Recession. It as a lot of work and we made it happen quickly, mostly because of factors related to the economy being so down. One piece of luck was having the moving company leave our household in their truck for two weeks to manage the between leaving one home and taking possession of the next one - Now, they'd insist on off-loading into a warehouse for the wait.

For anyone wanting to try it today (especially one who is already considering two moves), I'd strongly recommend renting first, then selling current house, then house hunting for the permanent residence. The stress of making all the moving parts synchronize in any other sequence likely isn't worth it.

Best regards,
Chris
 
I live in the far northwest of SA. I like to say I live on the first hill of the hill country. If I were moving to SA, anywhere in the hill country is a good place to settle. It doesn't take long to get just about anywhere in SA if you choose a good route and a favorable time of day. If I were to look, it would be NW of SA. The further west and north the better. Subdivisions off I-10 are growing fast so look farther out toward Kerville and west of I-10 in the hill country. As far as dinning in the area, I wouldn't worry about that. There are many really good and unique places hidden in the area. The more hidden, the better the food and atmosphere. I'm retired AF and getting to military facilities including hospitals isn't that difficult. As far as things to do, if you can't find something to do on a weekend in SA or local area, you have other problems that need to be addressed.
 
ME!!!! We live in New Braunfels!! Yes, everything you have read so far is correct. It is exploding in population and house prices are booming up. They announced another large development this week on top of the 5,000 home Veramendi project going on right now. We moved here about 14 years ago and we were on the outskirts of town, and now we are surrounded by sprawl. Boerne is just as bad. BUT, you should be able to easily find a nice house in the 500k range depending on how much land you want with it. For large lot sizes, look at Vintage Oaks, or closer to town, the TBarM Ranch (tennis) just up the street from me or Hunters Creek. Our house was in the 200k range when we bought. More land? look just outside of town heading up to Canyon Lake. We have two rivers running thru NB and I am 30 minutes from Canyon Lake and that's why I love it here. We bought knowing this would be our retirement home, and we are in a small subdivision almost right next to HEB, by choice. Be sure to check out Das Rec - a brand new very nice community fitness center. Also, you are right between SA and AUS for flights. Other than rush hour, I can be downtown SA in 25 minutes, or to the Pearl. I agree that you should rent for awhile - the SA Hill Country area has alot to offer.
 
Better places

Been in that area 30 years. The growth, overpopulation for the infrastructure, high property taxes, continual increasing cost of goods and services, high traffic, increasing crime, and intense political climate have made this an area that if not for our kids and grandkids we would have run from as soon as we retired.
 
Just sold our home on the far north side of San Antonio and bought a home in western North Carolina. Overall, San Antonio is a liveable, if sprawling, city but has two strikes against it in my book - high property taxes and long hot summers.
The home we just purchased in the Blue Ridge mountains has an annual property tax rate of $1600 a year. The home we just sold in San Antonio (nearly the same appraised price) had an annual property tax bill of $7500! That is a pretty tough number to reckon with my retirement budget.
As far as weather goes, that is certainly a personal preference, but summer temps in the 80s/60s is more to my liking than the endless days pushing 100 that are the norm for the summer in San Antonio.

We will miss the great BBQ and Tex-Mex though!
 
ospreyjp said:
Just sold our home on the far north side of San Antonio and bought a home in western North Carolina. Overall, San Antonio is a liveable, if sprawling, city but has two strikes against it in my book - high property taxes and long hot summers.
The home we just purchased in the Blue Ridge mountains has an annual property tax rate of $1600 a year. The home we just sold in San Antonio (nearly the same appraised price) had an annual property tax bill of $7500! That is a pretty tough number to reckon with my retirement budget.
As far as weather goes, that is certainly a personal preference, but summer temps in the 80s/60s is more to my liking than the endless days pushing 100 that are the norm for the summer in San Antonio.

We will miss the great BBQ and Tex-Mex though!
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Have you factored in the 5 1/4 state tax? Does that offset the property tax gain?
Not trying to talk you back, just wondering about the full picture as far as taxes go.
 
ospreyjp said:
The home we just sold in San Antonio (nearly the same appraised price) had an annual property tax bill of $7500!
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Out of curiosity I looked up the 2021 property taxes on the last home we owned in San Antonio: $11,000! The property taxes on our current home of similar value in a nearby county is half that - but still too darn high.

Congratulations on escaping Texas!
 
ospreyjp said:
We will miss the great BBQ and Tex-Mex though!
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I would actually call the food you describe in San Antonio as MEX-MEX...it's as authentic as it comes. We called San Antonio "Northern Mexico" mostly because of the authentic Mexican food.
 
MuirWannabe said:
Have you factored in the 5 1/4 state tax? Does that offset the property tax gain?
Not trying to talk you back, just wondering about the full picture as far as taxes go.
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Fortunately, filing jointly the first $21,500 of a pension is tax exempt in NC. SS is fully exempt. In my case, I won't be paying any NC tax. Sales tax rates are more favorable than Texas as well.
 
REWahoo said:
I don't think so. State and local sales taxes in TX generally run around 8%. The rate in San Antonio is 8.25%
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NC statewide is 4.75% but counties add to that. The total for the county we have moved to is 6.75% total. Score again...
 
Not to beat a dead horse, but water bills in San Antonio are also a serious consideration. To keep my old home's third of an acre lawn alive, I regularly paid in excess of $200 a month to SAWS (the water company) during the summer months.
 
cnocmmz said:
Hi.... Long time contributor and fan of this knowledge base :). Here is the situation:
DW and I thinking of moving to San Antonio, Tx area...Specifically New Braunfels.
Background: I am 61 and DW is 67 we have been in San Antonio some 4 years back and liked it, and we were supposed to go visit the area last year; although, COVID was bad then and so we had the scheduled changed until 19th of July this year. So, we are set to go as scheduled. Speaking with our real estate agent in New Braunfels, he had mentioned that homes are now in the high 500's or low 600's :-(. DW has a brother in San Antonio and we liked the area some years back and we loved the view of the hills and so forth .
We are ready to pull the plug on working here in Virginia by this Dec 31st with nice pensions and SS income being over 10K monthly and over 1-MM in investments.
All that being said, looking for any advice for moving in this area to really focus on? Obviously we want a little land that we are not constantly maintaining, and, not right next to our neighbor but at the same time, not 30 min from restaurants or hospitals either?

It is all so overwhelming, because we have to sell our home in Virginia first which should be quick; however, need to find a temporary place to live while the home is getting built if we go that route.
I guess we are just asking if anyone lives in that area and has some advise or recommendations of where to move too.
Bottom line, we enjoy Virginia, although for several reasons we would like to move to Tx
Thanks so much!!!!
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Hello Y'ALL
Well we made it back from San Antonio and I have to say, we loved it. Weather was hot but we like that. After reading all the responses about the traffic, I would have to disagree. I drove all around San Antonio, Boerne and the I-10 corridor and farther, and, we really did not hit much traffic? That being said, we found a beautiful home off of I-10 in Boerne near the La Cantera area. Lovely restaurants and not far from historic Boerne. Prices of homes are outrageous like everywhere. We put in an offer on a 650K model home and they accepted 630K with all the furniture. It is just a matter of us selling our Virginia home which will give us 200K equity for the new home. Timing will be everything in these transactions indeed. Thanks again for all your inputs, we are looking forward to a new journey and we will keep you updated if everything materializes.
 
cnocmmz said:
Hello Y'ALL
Well we made it back from San Antonio and I have to say, we loved it. Weather was hot but we like that. After reading all the responses about the traffic, I would have to disagree. I drove all around San Antonio, Boerne and the I-10 corridor and farther, and, we really did not hit much traffic? That being said, we found a beautiful home off of I-10 in Boerne near the La Cantera area. Lovely restaurants and not far from historic Boerne. Prices of homes are outrageous like everywhere. We put in an offer on a 650K model home and they accepted 630K with all the furniture. It is just a matter of us selling our Virginia home which will give us 200K equity for the new home. Timing will be everything in these transactions indeed. Thanks again for all your inputs, we are looking forward to a new journey and we will keep you updated if everything materializes.
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Good for you! Nice to hear the follow up. Here's to smooth transactions in both places.

Best regards,
Chris
 
cnocmmz said:
Hello Y'ALL
Well we made it back from San Antonio and I have to say, we loved it. Weather was hot but we like that.
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Not to pour hot water :) on your experience, but the first three weeks of July haven't been hot, they've been the coolest in the 35+ years we've lived here.

That said, hope your move goes well and you enjoy your new home. Let me know if you spot a chupracabra.


Edit to add: To illustrate how unusually cool July has been I did a quick comparison of the first three weeks of July 2021 vs 2020. This is why I said it hasn't been hot. :)

In 2020 the daily high ranged from 95 to 106 with an average high of 99.4
In 2021 the daily high ranged from 79 to 93 with an average high of 88.3.
 
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