Need advice on where to settle (San Antonio, Austin: to rent, homeowners insurance, low crime)

[Cetb]

[Mod cut: corrected] We are currently trying to figure out what area of SA would work for us...
Wife’s job is in the medical center area...mine is 50 miles away south from SA thru 35. We have a 6 yr old and we are trying to find a happy medium when it comes to a good school in a good neighborhood on the west side of SA. Alamo Ranch are is obviously my first choice as it would place me just under an hr commute, there are some good schools in the area, no COSA tax?, and the real state market price and neighborhoods look reasonable. The bad would be that traffic is a major headache in the area. Looking at google maps at around 730ish am from the AR area to medical center is almost an hr commute...with apparently accidents along the way being the norm. Driving back at around 530pm it’s about the same. Being that we also need to account for an after school daycare for our daughter as my schedules varies and my wife is sometimes required to stay late at work...are there any other areas beside AR that we should be looking in to? Our main priorities are obviously a good elementary and safe neighborhood, and relative shorter commute for her...we would love to be in the Shavano area but it’s oviously too far for me. Budget wise we figure $350-400k
Thanks.

[Pancho-Villa]

Did you try the search function? Most want safe neighborhood, good schools and low crime (those never change) ...there's tons of suggestions if you search. Then, you could look on the map to see where the suggestions are and narrow it down.
Also, you are aware there are drawbacks to not paying SA city tax,right?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by Cetb

no COSA tax

This attribute is overrated. CoSA taxes will be a small fraction of your property tax bill, <10%. The largest portion of property taxes will go your local public school district. Since you want good public schools, expect that tax bill to be sizable.

The downside of living outside of a city in Bexar County is the quality of police and fire protection. Response times will be slower and the response, particularly for fire protection, will be less likely to be from professionals. Your homeowners insurance rates will be higher, since the insurance companies know this, too.

[Cetb]

Thanks! Yes I have searched the forums...so much that I was expecting you and or ashbeeigh to reply with something similar to what you just posted It was bc of these forums that we learned of the traffic in AR area and why the wife is weary of moving there. We do visit SA often but it’s mostly on the weekends when the traffic is not as bad as a typical weekday morning during school time or afternoon rush hour. We are familiar somewhat familiar with SA and would feel safe in most areas of the city. I know finding the trifecta of a place close to work with a decent school in a good safe neighborhood is not possible for us mostly due to my job. But we would like to hear from people who are in a similar situation i.e. dual income families with school age kids who don’t work close to where they live. We looked up an after school daycare near in the medical center that pick up their school and takes them back there and are open until 6pm. The problem is they only pick up from the surrounding schools and most are not exactly good school from what we read. Other issue is that my wife would have to stay past 6pm at work sometimes. We know Basis has a campus in the medical center to but we figure there might be a waiting list and my wife was concerned with some of the parents’ school reviews, we tried reaching out to them with some ?’s...two months later and still no reply. We read about some neighborhoods close to the area and some planned communities by KB homes west of medical center that most ppl here didn’t recommend.

[Cetb]

Originally Posted by Bo

This attribute is overrated. CoSA taxes will be a small fraction of your property tax bill, <10%. The largest portion of property taxes will go your local public school district. Since you want good public schools, expect that tax bill to be sizable.

The downside of living outside of a city in Bexar County is the quality of police and fire protection. Response times will be slower and the response, particularly for fire protection, will be less likely to be from professionals. Your homeowners insurance rates will be higher, since the insurance companies know this, too.

On this... you are right! It is based on school district. Say school A is given a low rating by either greatschools or schooldigger and reviews confirmed it, now school B has a higher rating by either or both and reviews are positive...if both schools are on the same school district... taxes are the same. The difference is that say in a neighborhood with two elementary schools one say it’s rated a 9 and one is a 5... houses on that same neighborhood will be higher for those assigned to the school that is a 9 than those assigned to the school that is a 5 (for the most part) but both are paying the same amount in tax for the school district

This is something that we haven’t considered.. we have seen the voluntary fire depts on other areas outside SA and know that emergency services in the AR area will be county and not city but we never knew that the county SO is low to respond in case of an emergency and their fire response team is not comprised of professionals.

[Pancho-Villa]

KB= NO WAY! We recommend the search because we get so many that don't. Most want similar things,of course. No one posts here that they desire a high crime area with poor schools etc.

Did you find areas within the search? We can fill you in on those if you like. As far as Shavano (I know it's too far)..budget might be a little low to live in Shavano Park proper. There are developments just outside there that call themselves Woods of Shavano, Shavano Forest etc.Those are in the city of SA, not Shavano Park.
BCSO has a lot of area to cover, so yes they may be slower. Plus, they are usually considered a notch below SAPD by most and are sometimes the butt of jokes.
Also, yes those are volunteer fire dept's.
So yes, you'll pay less taxes, but possible could pay for it down the road in a not so pleasant way. You also pay for your own trash pickup as well.

[ashbeeigh]

You didn't say what your commute time would be. What does that look like? If you are willing to sacrifice a long commute for a good area I would look into the 78249 or 78230 area. 78249 is the Woods of Shavano and everything west. 78230 is east. You'll see i respond pretty in detail when people ask about the Woods of Shavano. It's a good commute to the Medical Center and convenient to major highways to get you to your destination.

Schools are perfectly fine in that area. The schools immediately around the Medical Center may be rated like 6-7 versus the 8-9 that you'd get further out. But you have to do your research. These aren't bad schools. I work in bad schools in Austin (like going to be taken over by the state) and none of the schools in NISD (district that serves AR and the Medical Center) are bad. The only reason I would consider a charter for my kiddos in San Antonio would be if I had to be the East Central, Harlandale or South San school districts. SAISD has amazing magnet programs and the other districts are just fine.

With all that said, I'm sure you've read in your searches to rent first. Please rent first for a bit. Or even AirBnB in the neighborhood for a few weeks while house hunting to get a feel of the area.

[Cetb]

Thanks! I will def check up the area around 78249, found some homes on the are and seems like a good compromise for both our commutes. My commute will be about an hr and change to Steubing elementary on 1604 and Bandera (google maps on non rush hr commute time) for reference. And we will definitely rent before we buy does any one have any good recommendations for after school daycare on the Bandera 1604 area?

[elnina]

Originally Posted by Pancho-Villa

Did you try the search function? Most want safe neighborhood, good schools and low crime (those never change) ...there's tons of suggestions if you search. Then, you could look on the map to see where the suggestions are and narrow it down.
Also, you are aware there are drawbacks to not paying SA city tax,right?

Lots of info in the forum first sticky thread.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Cetb

Thanks! I will def check up the area around 78249, found some homes on the are and seems like a good compromise for both our commutes. My commute will be about an hr and change to Steubing elementary on 1604 and Bandera (google maps on non rush hr commute time) for reference. And we will definitely rent before we buy does any one have any good recommendations for after school daycare on the Bandera 1604 area?

Don't most schools offer after school programs on campus?