{"id":297831,"date":"2026-05-18T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:30:00","slug":"san-antonio-housing-hangover-could-trigger-historic-property-tax-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297831\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Housing ‘Hangover’ Could Trigger Historic Property Tax Hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Property values in San Antonio, TX<\/a>, have fallen so dramatically that the city council is considering raising taxes<\/a> for the first time in 33 years.<\/p>\n

At a recent city council meeting, City Manager Erik Walsh said that the general fund, which pays for services such as the fire and police departments, and parks and libraries, has a deficit of $70 million.<\/p>\n

The reason for the shortfall: Taxable values<\/a> on existing San Antonio properties<\/a> are down 3.5%, and overall taxable value, which includes new properties, is down 2.1%.<\/p>\n

The budget crunch follows an astonishing boom-and-bust cycle for home values in San Antonio. Four years ago, in spring 2022, median listing prices there surged more than 20% year over year, according to Realtor.com\u00ae<\/a> data.<\/p>\n

But since early 2023, home prices in San Antonio have been in decline. April’s median listing price of $324,700 was down 4.5% from a year ago, and nearly 10% less than the same month in 2022. The pullback has effectively wiped most of the price gains of the pandemic housing market boom.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones says that San Antonio, like other Central Texas<\/a> markets, is suffering a hangover from the homebuilding frenzy seen there during the peak of the pandemic-era boom.<\/p>\n

“San Antonio has been an active new-home construction market since the onset of the pandemic,” she says. “Builders kept delivering homes even as demand softened post-2022, adding to an already swelling resale inventory. This supply-side pressure is difficult to quickly absorb.”<\/p>\n

Jones notes that home prices in San Antonio have hovered in the low- to mid-$320,000 range for nearly a year, saying it suggests “the market has found a floor but shows no meaningful recovery.”<\/p>\n

What local agents are seeing<\/p>\n

San Antonio real estate agent Celia Taylor<\/a> with Taylor & Taylor tells Realtor.com she’s seen a flatlining in prices, but believes the market will hold steady.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a correction in the market,” she concedes, but adds that while prices “aren’t appreciating” nor are they “going backwards.”<\/p>\n

She sees a lot of sellers who are “right-sizing” (either buying larger or smaller, depending on their current needs) and staying in the area, which allows them to price more realistically, keeping her listings from stagnating.<\/p>\n

“They’re buying back into the same market, so they can afford to price their house right,” she says.<\/p>\n

She notes that some of those who migrated from pricier states such as California<\/a> during the pandemic are now reversing their move\u2014headed back home, often to be with their families. <\/p>\n

Though Taylor and her husband and business partner, Stephen Taylor, have lived in other areas of the U.S., including Maine<\/a> and California, she says they prefer San Antonio.<\/p>\n

“There’s employment and opportunities to own a home here that weren’t available to us elsewhere,” she tells Realtor.com. “Across the board, I feel pretty good about pricing in the market.”<\/p>\n

Local agent Miguel Mata of Living Lavish Realty, who previously spoke to Realtor.com about the rapidly selling tiny home<\/a> market in the city, says that he’s seen prices actually rise since last year. <\/p>\n

“I’m not seeing prices drops, absolutely not,” he insists. <\/p>\n

While the 2022\u20132023 interest rate surge hit San Antonio first-time homebuyers hard, Mata says his clients\u201490% of whom purchase new construction\u2014are better positioned, reaping fixed rates as low as 3.99%, nearly half as low as standard, thanks to builder incentives.<\/p>\n

“That’s a major difference,” he says. <\/p>\n

Despite a new-build oversupply, Mata says that new homes in masterplanned communities such as D.R. Horton’s Riverstone-at-Westpoint<\/a>, where they start around $250,000, and Lennar’s Brookmill<\/a>, with an even lower entry point of $155,000, continue to move.<\/p>\n

However, he notes that he has a strong military clientele\u2014whom he markets to through his popular TikTok<\/a> account\u2014thanks to the area’s large military<\/a> installations, giving him a robust buyer pool.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of movement when it comes to military [homebuyers],” he says. “And right now is the season when they are PCSing [permanent change of station], when they get a new contract to transfer and come to San Antonio specifically for their new jobs.”<\/p>\n

San Antonio’s tax dilemma<\/p>\n

Officials say that without a property tax rate increase of at least 3.5%, San Antonio’s looming $70 million deficit is projected to double within two years. The city would then have to cut $131 million from the budget.<\/p>\n

In a conservative state where taxes\u2014especially property taxes<\/a>\u2014are anathema to many, some members of the council argued that instead of raising rates, more budget cuts could be made.<\/p>\n

“People don’t want to pay higher property taxes,” Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez\u00a0said at the May 6 meeting, according to the San Antonio Express-News<\/a>. “They don’t want us to cut their services. And so where do we go from here?”<\/p>\n

The Texas market in general<\/p>\n

Other Texas markets, including Austin, Dallas, and Houston, are all experiencing similar, though less dramatic, dynamics, according to Realtor.com data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The whole Texas metro corridor built heavily during the pandemic boom and is now working through excess supply,” says Jones.<\/p>\n

“We are seeing a slowdown of sales, everything is taking longer to sell than the same time last year,” agrees Paige Elliott of the Elliott & Elliott Real Estate Group<\/a> of the Greater Dallas metro area.<\/p>\n

Indeed, days on market bottomed at 30 to 32 days in mid-2022 and have climbed significantly since then, hitting 85 days in January 2026 before settling back to roughly 53 to 79 days in recent months, according to Realtor.com data.<\/p>\n

“That’s well above the pandemic lows and back to or above pre-pandemic norms (about 50 to 70 days in 2017\u20132019), indicating buyer urgency has largely evaporated,” says Jones.<\/p>\n

“Prices are not dramatically dropping in our market, but buyers are not in a hurry,” Elliott stresses. <\/p>\n

She adds though she’s seen a few rapid sales with multiple offers, the properties have to tick every box and be “very” specific to what the buyers want.<\/p>\n