What about Helotes? (San Antonio, Canyon, Mart: HOA, house, neighborhoods)

[feffy8583]

Does anybody have any input about living in Helotes? We are moving from Colorado in September, we were there during Thanksgiving and really liked the area, especially Galm rd and closer to the Government Canyon State Park

[C24L]

What is your budget for housing,OP?

[ashbeeigh]

Do you have jobs yet?

[Roader]

Floores for concerts and helotes country club for drinking are nice

[feffy8583]

Budget is $300K. We will build new. Yes we have jobs, I'm a realtor so I can work wherever I want. I'd really like to know if it's a safe place to leave.No kids so I don't care for schools districts. Also, we noticed lots of flooding sign alert on the streets. Does Helotes have flooding issues?

[ashbeeigh]

All of south central Texas has potential for flooding, primarily flash flooding. It's safe. You'll be fine. Traffic will suck but if commute is s non-issue you'll be fine there. Search the forum. The areas surrounding and south if helites are the most popular areas to move to in this forum.

[Labamigo]

Originally Posted by feffy8583

.No kids so I don't care for schools districts. Also, we noticed lots of flooding sign alert on the streets. Does Helotes have flooding issues?

You
should be concerned about school quality. When it comes time to sell your house you will see why.

[feffy8583]

Originally Posted by Labamigo

You
should be concerned about school quality. When it comes time to sell your house you will see why.

Who says I want to sell? I might be building my forever home

[zcondren]

The schools in the area you are talking about are rated exemplary anyways so it isn't an issue.

[Boghaunter]

Our mailing address is "Helotes," but we actually live just outside the boundary in Bexar County. Whether you mean the county or Helotes proper makes a difference.

For example, due to long policy, San Antonio did not actively annex surrounding areas. Bexar County did/does not have the budget to provide amenities for all the housing developments going in so as a default did not approve developments unless they were planned as "gated communities." We live in one such, and it's quite large - nearly 1200 homes. When they're first built and still building, the developer maintains control of the HOA and the fees it charges; they keep them low to encourage initial sales. Thus, when the homeowners actually take over the HOA they tend to have somewhat under-funded reserve accounts that the HOA has to make up later, for road and clubhouse, park, and pool repair. The longer those catch-up fees are delayed, the higher they have to be raised later.

Helotes proper doesn't suffer from this as much as the nearby County developments - there are neighborhoods without gates. It's a small town and there are small businesses in Old Town Helotes, as the new WalMart hasn't been there long enough to kill them off. Old Town has a good "dance hall," Floores Country Store - Willy Nelson still occasionally performs there. There's a farmer's market nearby on weekends, a good auto repair shop, and basically a laid-back atmosphere. Nearby, just the inside side of Loop 1604 there's a good shopping area, with groceries and a Lowes home improvement big box.

The area around here is growing and affluent. It's convenient to University of Texas at San Antonio, several shopping areas, The Rim, La Cantera. I think you'll be able to do it for $300k, though, or close, though maybe not the big lot places near Government Canyon.