Relocating from Canada to SA! Woohoo! Please help :) (San Antonio, New Braunfels: real estate, crime)

[rynw]

Hey everyone! I'm looking for any help I can get please! My husband and I are relocating from Canada to beautiful San Antonio in the next few months and we couldn't be more excited

We are thinking of the following areas (below) and are wondering if you could offer your insight into these areas, including the quality of the schools in these areas, safety, travel time to downtown SA, etc.

Also, we want to settle someplace that is dog and family-friendly (we don't have kids yet, but we will be looking to settle in SA and build new family roots there!). We want to be someplace that is not far from downtown or the airport (30-45 mins away is perfectly fine) and a place where we will be able to be social and meet new friends is important to us too.

We have a love for nature settings as well, but we're really open-minded and flexible.

Housing-wise, we're looking for a home in the range of up to $300k (max).

Any and all info is really appreciate, thanks so much!

- New Braunfels
- Hill Country
- Alamo Ranch
- Helotes
- Alamo Heights
- La Cantera
- Boerne
- Terrell Hills

Any other advice is also really appreciated

[cakmke]

I'm partial to New Braunfels since I'm a descendant of a First Founder; however, I was born and raised in San Antonio. New Braunfels is a small town with not alot to do, no big shops/stores or even a mall. There are nice parks and a big river people swim/float/tube in if that is your thing. It is about 45 minutes to the airport but travelling up/down highway 35 can be a real nightmare especially during morning/evening commutes. The Schertz/Cibolo/Universal City area is a growing place with alot of young families and great schools. It has an outdoor shopping center, decent mall with JC Penney, Macy's...etc. It is between NB and San Antonio. I live in UC now and love it. Small, safe, quiet, clean area but close to SA if I need to go there. When you said Hill Country, did you mean a neighborhood or community by that name or the actual Hill Country region of Texas out north of San Antonio?
Alamo Ranch-IMO, no
Helotes- have friends that live there and they love it, don't know too much else.
Alamo Heights-does have nice homes, good schools, known for its wealthy white people, but it's in the middle of SA, crime would be a concern for me.
La Cantera- Does have alot of upscale shopping, it borders on the Hill Country so access to outdoors and parks would be easy. Leon Springs Elementary is one of the best in that district.
Boerne is like New Braunfels, small country town, quite far to commute, it's in the Hill Country so plenty of nature and parks.
- Terrell Hills-is like Alamo Heights, known for its "old money", lots of beautiful homes, but again the location for crime would be concern.

[TXsurburbanmom]

Are you partial to older homes or newer homes. If you like older homes Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills fit your requirements but you will get less square footage for your money (nothing like Canada though from what I've seen on HGTV ). Alamo Heights zip code is 78209 if you want to search the real estate sites.

Alamo Ranch, Helotes, Boerne and New Braunfels are probably going to be a longer drive then you mentioned.

If you prefer newer houses Stone Oak, Encino Park, Cibolo Canyons etc out 281 would fit timewise. There is construction at the moment that might slow you down a bit but my husband makes the airport in 20 minutes during rush hour most days. Excellent schools, shopping, dining too. The zip codes out here are 78258, 78259, 78260 and 78261. Some might be a bit far out but you can map them.

Trying to remember them all. La Canters area is nice but someone just mentioned traffic on another post so that might be an issue to the airport.

Rogers Ranch and the Vineyard are just past Stone Oak and very nice as well. Feed into Stone Oak schools and has access to preschoolers and Mother's Day Outs at nearby churches. The area inside 1604 along Huebner is nice too and even closer to the airport.

Hollywood Park is along 281 inside 1604 and the homes have larger yards. Many are older but some really nice newer homes as well which would give you options whichever age house you prefer. LOTS of wildlife too.

[smuboy86]

Hahaha about crime in Alamo heights or Terrell hills. Crime is virtually unknown in those two cities. The police are so bored there that they ask residents to give them a heads up if they are going to be gone overnight so they can check on the house.

[jwebtx]

Crime in Alamo Heights and Terrel Hills? LOL. Either would be a great place to raise a family. Both are close to the airport and downtown.

I would also strongly consider Olmos Park for its setting, location, schools, etc.

Finding a home you want in these neighborhoods for 300 may be your biggest challenge.

If you want ultra suburbia, I wouldn't look at any of the neighborhoods in this post.

[Buffyfan]

Those are all good picks for a home. We live close to the Redland Road/1604 area, north of Thousand Oaks. This area is very close to the airport/15 minutes to downtown. I highly recommend it, close to parks and not in crazy Stone Oak traffic north of 1604.

Alamo Ranch and New Braunfels are too far. Alamo Heights, Terrel Hills are great areas.

[cakmke]

didn't say or mean to imply that there IS crime in AH and TH, just said that the location would be a concern FOR ME w/ its proximity to other areas. My parents live near the Olmos Basin Golf Course and that area has gone to pot, break ins, robberies, graffiti...
It's great that those cities have a police force that looks out for the community. That's one reason I like UC so much, always see them patrolling the neighborhoods and catching people who go 1 mile over the speed limit

[rynw]

WOW! thanks so much for all the great feedback, already! I really appreciate it.

We aren't looking for ultra suburbia necessarily. But we would like a nice piece of land to enjoy and to let the dogs (and in future, kids) play in. Being from Canada, our lots tend to be very small compared to the "standard" of the USA and we pay way too much for real estate when you consider square footage, etc (like ddeel mentioned!!), so I'm a little green as to what you call the norm there for lot size. To give you an idea, our current home is a lot size of approx. 50 feet wide and 120 feet front to back, and that's big here!

Having a small town feel with friendly folks is always nice, but being close to amenities is important to us too. We need a home to be able to move into quickly (likely a new inventory home is going to be our best bet, I think).

I have a lot of research to do with all those zip codes you listed and other areas to look at!

When I mentioned "Country Hill", I believe it is the region, not the community that I was referring to, but again, I'm not very familiar....



We're from the Toronto area (not Toronto) and the traffic there is horrible and the people are not friendly and getting ruder the highways are gridlock from 6am - 10am and 2pm - 8pm easily in either direction! My husband's current commute home is 2+ hours in the evenings alone!

cakmke : what is UC?

You guys are great, thanks for being so willing to help me out

[rynw]

OH! and we were wondering if anyone's visited Dick's Last Resort restaurant? and what you think of it??

it looks like a blast there!! hoping the food is good...?

[flourpower]

You will have a hard time finding a decent sized house for under $300K that feeds into the Alamo Heights ISD.
As far as Dick's Last Resort, if you enjoy tourist traps with crappy food and the embarassment of phallic symbols fashioned out of butcher paper placed on your head, then go for it ~ this is the place for you!