Charlotte vs San Antonio: which should you move to?
Charlotte or San Antonio? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
Charlotte
San Antonio
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, but the prices are not the same measure: Charlotte's is the Canopy MLS median sale inside the city, San Antonio's the San Antonio Board of REALTORS' median for all of Bexar County. County against county, Mecklenburg's median was $468,500 in July 2026 and Bexar's $280,999 in August, and Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio stood at $247,453. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,644 a month on Charlotte's $430,000 at August's 6.67% and $2,116 on the Bexar County median at September's 7.03%; at the same 7.03% Charlotte's would be about $2,726. San Antonio's cheaper house gives part of it back in a property tax of $4,390 a year against $3,010 and insurance of $250 a month against $180, and it is paid on less: the city's median household income is $66,176 against $86,416, so the carry is about 38% of it against 37%. North Carolina takes $3,709 of income tax on $100,000 and Texas none. Crime splits, on counts built differently: San Antonio has the lower violent and homicide rates, and Charlotte the lower property rate. Choose Charlotte for banking, Medicaid expansion and the higher incomes. Choose San Antonio for the cheaper house, no state income tax, the military and an 11.2 C January.
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 964,784 (2025) | 1,548,422 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 2,938,830 (2025) | 2,813,140 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 10.3% (2020-2025) | 8.0% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $430,000 (July 2026) | $280,999 (August 2026) | San Antonio |
| Detached house benchmark | $420,000 | $249,206 | San Antonio |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $292,000 | $167,371 | San Antonio |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,781/mo (average, August 2026) | $1,179/mo (median, September 2026) | San Antonio |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,470/mo | $957/mo | San Antonio |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 24.7% of a year's income | 21.4% of a year's income | San Antonio |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,213/mo at 6.67% | $1,500/mo at 7.03% | San Antonio |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.0× | 4.2× | San Antonio |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $3,010/yr (0.70%, 2026) | $4,389/yr (1.562%, 2025) | Charlotte |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | $860 (seller pays) | None | San Antonio |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Charlotte: About 0.70% of market value. Charlotte levies 0.7857%: Mecklenburg County's 49.27¢ plus the City's 29.30¢ per $100, but against a value frozen at the 1 January 2023 revaluation. North Carolina measures that gap itself: the Department of Revenue certifies Mecklenburg's assessment level at 88.78% of sale price, which is how it publishes an effective county rate of 0.4374% against a nominal 0.4927%. The next revaluation takes effect 1 January 2027, and it will move assessments to what houses are worth then, not to what you paid. San Antonio: About 1.56% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $280,999 Bexar County median sale price. A house in the City of San Antonio and Northside ISD, the school district more of the city's residents live in than any other, is taxed by seven units for 2025, which add to 2.290174 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Northside ISD the state's $140,000 and nothing more, the county's Road and Flood Control Fund the state's $3,000 for a flood control tax and a further 20%, the Alamo Community College District 1% with the state's $5,000 floor, the San Antonio River Authority 4%, and Bexar County, University Health and the City 20% each. So Bexar County levies 0.276331 per $100 on $224,799 after an exemption of $56,200, $621; Bexar County Road and Flood Control Fund levies 0.023668 per $100 on $221,799 after an exemption of $59,200, $52; University Health levies 0.276235 per $100 on $224,799 after an exemption of $56,200, $621; City of San Antonio levies 0.54159 per $100 on $224,799 after an exemption of $56,200, $1,217; Northside ISD levies 1.0049 per $100 on $140,999 after an exemption of $140,000, $1,417; Alamo Community College District levies 0.14915 per $100 on $275,999 after an exemption of $5,000, $412; San Antonio River Authority levies 0.0183 per $100 on $269,759 after an exemption of $11,240, $49. The seven come to $4,390 a year, 1.56% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $6,435. In San Antonio ISD, the inner-city district, the school line is 1.1552 per $100 after an exemption of $145,000, and the same house comes to $4,544, 1.62%. The median is the county's, and a typical home inside the city is cheaper: on $247,453, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical City of San Antonio home, the Northside ISD stack comes to $3,697, 1.49%, lower because the school district's flat exemption is a larger share of a cheaper house. These are the 2025 rates, the bills due by 31 January 2026. When these figures were retrieved the Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector's official table ran to 2025, with the units' 2026 rate calculation worksheets posted but no 2026 official rates, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all seven are published.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 607 (2025) | 532 (2025) | San Antonio |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,639 (2025) | 3,920 (2025) | Charlotte |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 96 (2025) | 106 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
CMPD's 15 January 2026 year-end report put overall crime down 9% in 2025, violent crime down 21% (5,852 offenses versus 7,436 in 2024) and property crime down 6%, with homicides falling from 110 to 96, robberies down 24% and vehicle thefts down from 7,442 to 5,960. Homicides had been above 100 a year since 2020, so 2025 was the first clear drop in several years; the August 2025 killing of a passenger on the LYNX Blue Line kept transit safety in the news despite the citywide numbers.
What the rates cover: 5,852 violent offenses (UCR summary definitions) reported by CMPD for 2025, divided by the 964,784 city population estimate. CMPD's jurisdiction is the city plus unincorporated Mecklenburg County, so the true rate per resident is slightly lower.
Homicides: 96 homicides in 2025 versus 110 in 2024, about 10 per 100,000 on the city population; CMPD reports a 79% clearance rate.
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in San Antonio went from 11,219 in 2021 to a peak of 13,105 in 2022, then 10,440 in 2023, 9,173 in 2024 and 8,241 in 2025, a 10% drop in the last year and 37% below the peak, and property offenses from 61,559 to 74,787 and a peak of 80,789 in 2023, then 70,657 and 60,693, 25% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft drove most of that swing: 8,912 in 2021, 19,090 in 2023 and 9,527 in 2025, half the peak. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 9% (6,037 to 5,506), robberies down 17% (1,656 to 1,380), rapes down 8% (1,354 to 1,249) and murders down 16% (126 to 106). SAPD's own January-to-November comparison points the same way: all reported crime down 13% (143,529 to 124,314), crimes against property down 18.1%, motor vehicle theft down 26.5% and robberies down 16.4%, while crimes against society rose 15.4%, which the chief put down to more drug arrests. A University of Texas at San Antonio evaluation of the city's Violent Crime Reduction Plan found violent street crime fell 22% in treated hot spots in 2024 against 9.6% citywide (San Antonio Report). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 8,241 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the San Antonio Police Department (ORI TXSPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,548,422 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,549,306 the rate is also 532. No SAPD total on this definition was found in anything fetched. Its year-end report to the City Council's Public Safety Committee in December 2025 counted NIBRS crimes against persons, which include simple assaults, and put them at 28,361 for January through November 2025, down 9% from 31,179 in the same months of 2024 (KSAT).
Homicides: 106 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 126 in 2024, about 6.8 per 100,000 on the city population. SAPD's own count for January through November 2025 was 99 against 119 in the same months of 2024, a drop of nearly 17% (KSAT); a full-year SAPD figure was not found in anything fetched. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 233, in 2022, a year whose count includes the 53 migrants found dead in a tractor-trailer on the Southwest Side (San Antonio Report).
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 5.6 °C | 11.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 26.7 °C | 29.3 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,107 mm | 822 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 9 cm | 1 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,821 hours | 2,629 hours | Charlotte |
NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Charlotte Douglas International Airport (station USW00013881): January mean 42.1F, July mean 80.1F, annual mean 61.4F, 43.60 in of precipitation, 3.5 in of snow. July is the warmest month at 80.1F, ahead of August's 78.6F. The set this file carried until September 2026 was an older normal under the 1991-2020 label: a degree low in January and in July, and a fifth high on snow. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,821 hours, 62% of possible) since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Humid subtropical: long hot summers with regular thunderstorms, mild winters with occasional ice storms that close the city for a day or two, and remnant tropical systems (Hugo in 1989 hit Charlotte directly; Helene in 2024 devastated the mountains two hours west but mostly spared Charlotte). Flash flooding along creeks and summer heat indexes above 100F are the routine risks; wildfire smoke is rare.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for San Antonio International Airport (station USW00012921), inside the city about 8 miles north of downtown and the station where the National Weather Service keeps San Antonio's official record: January mean 52.2F, July mean 84.8F, annual mean 69.6F, 32.38 in of precipitation, 0.2 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 85.5F, with a mean high of 96.0F; July's mean high is 94.9F and January's mean low is 41.0F. May (4.40 in) and September (3.88 in) are the wettest months and February (1.74 in) the driest; the little snow the normals record falls in February and December. The normals count 122.4 days a year at 90F or above, 17.7 at 100F or above and 14.0 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 11.2 C, 29.3 C, 822 mm and 0.5 cm. That January mean is the same as Austin's at Camp Mabry and the precipitation is the least of the Texas cities this site compares, 99 mm less than Austin's and 495 mm less than Houston's. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,629 hours, 60% of possible, and 105 clear days), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flash flooding is the defining hazard. San Antonio sits on the Balcones Escarpment in what a National Weather Service meteorologist calls Flash Flood Alley, where shallow soil over limestone sends heavy rain straight into the creeks. On 17 and 18 October 1998 a nearly stationary storm complex, fed by moisture from two Eastern Pacific hurricanes, dropped 11.26 in (286 mm) on San Antonio International on the 17th, still the station's wettest calendar day, and 13.35 in (339 mm) in 24 hours, and October 1998's 18.07 in (459 mm) remains the wettest month on record there. Across South Texas that flood killed 31 people, and NOAA puts the damage at $942 million ($1.81 billion in 2024 dollars); the San Antonio Report counts 11 of the dead in San Antonio. On 25 May 2013, over Memorial Day weekend, 9.87 in (251 mm) fell at the airport, the station's second-wettest day, and a gauge on Olmos Creek caught 15.31 in in five hours and about 17 in by the end of the day; US 281 stayed under water for days, crews made more than 235 rescues and at least two people died. The deadliest single day came on 12 June 2025, when more than 7 in fell in three hours over the Beitel Creek watershed on the Northeast Side and the airport recorded a record 3.9 in (99 mm) in one hour and 6.11 in (155 mm) for the day: the creek rose by as much as a foot every ten minutes, and 13 people died, 11 of them along Beitel Creek, where at least 15 vehicles were swept off the Loop 410 frontage road. Two more were found dead after a storm flooded Salado Creek over Labor Day weekend, and over the July Fourth weekend between the two 117 people died in nearby Kerr County and 135 across the state. Heat is the constant. The normals count 122.4 days a year at or above 90F, about the same as Austin's 122.8 and more than Houston's 111.3 or Dallas's 107.5, and 17.7 at or above 100F (37.8 C), between Houston's 7.0 and Dallas's 22.4. The airport's record is 75 days of 100F in 2023, including 23 in a row from 30 July to 21 August, well ahead of 59 in 2009 and 58 in 2022, and its highest reading is 111F (43.9 C), on 5 September 2000; 2026 had 24 such days through 22 September. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri left 6.2 in (15.7 cm) of snow at the airport from 14 to 18 February 2021 and a low of 9F (-12.8 C) on the 15th, the coldest there since 6F (-14.4 C) on 23 December 1989; the station's record low is 0F (-17.8 C), on 31 January 1949, and its biggest snowfall 13.2 in (33.5 cm), on 12 January 1985. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February and about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst; Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 16 of them in Bexar County, and CPS Energy, the city's municipal electric and gas utility, reported $675 million to $850 million of losses on natural gas purchases and $175 million to $250 million on purchased power.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $86,416 USD (2024) | $66,176 USD (2024) | Charlotte |
| Unemployment rate | 3.7% (June 2026) | 4.7% (July 2026) | Charlotte |
| Sales tax | 8.25% | 8.25% | Even |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 41.25% | 37% | San Antonio |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $17,158 USD | $13,449 USD | San Antonio |
BLS counted 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs in the Charlotte MSA in June 2026, up 1.6% on the year, with construction (+9.0%) and education and health (+3.5%) growing fastest and manufacturing (-3.6%) and information (-5.8%) shrinking. Financial activities employ 128,500, a much larger share than in most metros of this size; average weekly wages in Q4 2025 were $1,515 against $1,569 nationally.
Main sectors: Banking and financial services (Bank of America HQ, Truist, Wells Fargo east coast hub), Professional and business services, Trade, transportation and logistics (CLT hub, distribution), Health care (Atrium Health, Novant Health), Construction and manufacturing (energy, motorsports).
North Carolina's flat rate drops in steps: 4.25% (2025), 3.99% (2026), with further cuts after 2026 tied to revenue triggers. Mecklenburg property tax is separate and was revalued in 2023.
BLS counted 1,191,700 nonfarm jobs in the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 6,100 or 0.5% on the year. Professional and business services grew fastest (+4.8%, to 162,400), then construction (+2.9%) and trade, transportation and utilities (+2.8%), while information (-7.7%), government (-3.1%, to 181,800) and private education and health services (-2.0%, to 180,300) shrank; federal government employment fell 6.7%, from 38,700 to 36,100. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 216,300 jobs. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48417000000000001) was 1,195,900 in August 2026, 0.8% above August 2025. BLS's federal line is far smaller than the base itself: the Texas Comptroller counts 74,713 direct employees at Joint Base San Antonio in 2025, 33,256 of them active-duty military, and estimates the base supported 223,349 Texas jobs and $33.9 billion of the state's GDP ($53.5 billion of output). Greater SATX, the regional economic development group, calls it the largest joint base in the US military. UT San Antonio, formed when UTSA and UT Health San Antonio merged in September 2025, calls health care and biosciences, a $44.1 billion sector, the city's largest industry. H-E-B, USAA, Valero Energy and iHeartMedia are all headquartered in the city.
Main sectors: Military and federal installations: Joint Base San Antonio (Fort Sam Houston with Brooke Army Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base with the Air Force's basic military training and the 16th Air Force, and Randolph Air Force Base with the Air Education and Training Command), Health care and biosciences (the South Texas Medical Center, University Health, UT Health San Antonio and UT San Antonio, Methodist Hospital, the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital), Tourism and hospitality (Visit San Antonio counts $23.4 billion of economic impact and more than 150,000 jobs in 2024), Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector by payroll jobs (H-E-B, headquartered in the city; CPS Energy; San Antonio International Airport's cargo), Financial services, energy and media headquarters (USAA, Valero Energy, iHeartMedia).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax. On 17 September 2026 the City Council voted 7 to 4, with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones in the minority, to raise the city's own rate for the first time since 1992, as part of a plan to close a $158 million deficit over two years that also includes cuts, fee increases and a second rate increase planned for fiscal 2028. The fiscal 2027 rate is 56.288 cents per $100 of taxable value: 35.138 cents for maintenance and operations, two cents more than before, and 21.150 cents for debt service. The two outlets that gave a figure for the average homestead disagree: KSAT put it at about $49 more a year on a taxable value of $231,356, and the San Antonio Report at $35.43 on a $234,000 home. Senior and disabled homeowners with a tax freeze, about 47% of the city's homesteads, are unaffected (KSAT). The county, school district, University Health, San Antonio River Authority, Alamo Colleges and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Charlotte | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS): LYNX Blue Line light rail (19 miles, Uptown to UNC Charlotte and I-485/South Blvd), CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar, local and express buses | VIA buses on 95 routes (three Primo rapid lines, 21 frequent and 70 standard) with 511 buses and 5,984 stops, VIA Link on-demand rideshare zones and paratransit (138 vehicles), across San Antonio, 13 smaller cities and unincorporated Bexar County; there is no rail, and the Green Line, the first of two Advanced Rapid Transit bus lines, is under construction | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 2.3% (2024) | 2.4% (2024) | San Antonio |
| Walk or cycle to work | 2.4% (2024) | 2.5% (2024) | San Antonio |
| Airport | Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), 53.6 million passengers in 2025, second busiest year after 58.8 million in 2024; an American Airlines hub where about 65% of passengers connect. | San Antonio International Airport (SAT), about 8 miles north of downtown and with no airline hub, handled 10,740,694 passengers in 2025, 3.2% fewer than the record 11,094,278 of 2024, and a record 274,847,470 pounds of air cargo, up 15.7%, per the airport's year-end statistics report, which puts the passenger decline down to economic uncertainty and the federal government shutdown. The airport is building Terminal C, which it says will add more than 850,000 square feet and up to 18 domestic and international gates by mid-2028. | Not directly comparable |
CATS carried about 15.7 million passenger trips in calendar 2024, up 11% on 2023 but still only about 65% of 2019 levels; bus ridership has lost roughly 65% of riders since 2013 while the Blue Line was at about 70% of its 2019 ridership (WFAE, February 2025). A November 2025 referendum passed 52.3% to 47.7% and adds a 1 cent sales tax from July 2026 expected to raise about $19.4 billion over 30 years, split 40% roads, 40% rail and 20% bus; the Red Line commuter rail to Lake Norman comes first, then the Silver Line light rail to the airport. A state audit in August 2026 estimated 45% of riders do not pay fares.
VIA carried 30,665,700 unlinked trips in 2025 and about 105,800 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026 (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher), against 78.0 million for Houston's METRO and 52.8 million for DART. Bexar County voters created VIA in 1977 with a half-cent sales tax, and a city-only Advanced Transportation District approved in 2004 adds more. The VIA Rapid Green Line will run along San Pedro Avenue from San Antonio International Airport through downtown to Brooks Transit Center, with dedicated bus lanes and new signal-protected crossings. It is a $481 million project, $268 million of it a federal grant the Federal Transit Administration committed in December 2024; construction began in the summer of 2025, work is active along San Pedro, and the FTA's revenue service date is April 2028. The east-west Silver Line, from the Frost Bank Center area to General McMullen Drive, is in design and projected for late 2030.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or individual private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid (North Carolina expanded Medicaid in December 2023), and uninsured adults still face full charges at hospitals. Two systems dominate: Atrium Health (part of Advocate Health, with Carolinas Medical Center as the region's Level I trauma centre and a new Wake Forest University School of Medicine campus in Charlotte) and Novant Health (Presbyterian Medical Center); primary care and specialist wait times run weeks rather than months, and costs depend far more on your plan than on the provider.
Education
UNC Charlotte enrolled a record 32,207 students in fall 2025 and is the city's main research university; Davidson College, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith University and Central Piedmont Community College round out the options. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is a single county-wide district of roughly 140,000 students with a large magnet lottery system and a sizeable charter sector; enrollment fell to its lowest level since 2010-11 in 2025-26, and school quality varies sharply by neighbourhood.
Living there
Charlotte is a banking city that grew fast and recently: most of what you see was built after 1990, the Uptown skyline is compact and quiet after office hours, and daily life runs through car-oriented suburbs like Ballantyne, University City and the Lake Norman towns. South End and NoDa along the Blue Line are where the walkable apartment-and-brewery growth has concentrated. Summers are hot and humid, traffic on I-77 and I-485 is the main complaint, and the city is still working out what transit, schools and housing it wants to be as it passes a million residents.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of San Antonio's rate was 18.0% (268,665 of 1,496,335), Bexar County's 15.8% and the metro's 14.5%. The South Texas Medical Center on the Northwest Side covers more than 900 acres around the medical school that opened there in 1968 and holds the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Medical Center and a dozen other hospitals; a UTSA study cited by the San Antonio Report in 2022 put its annual economic effect on the region at $24.5 billion. University Health, the Bexar County Hospital District, runs University Hospital there, a 716-bed teaching hospital and a Level I trauma center for adults and children, and the 300-bed Women's & Children's Hospital that opened on the same campus in 2023; it plans to open two community hospitals elsewhere in the county in 2027. Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston has about 8,500 staff. UT Health San Antonio, the clinical arm of UT San Antonio, counts more than 2.5 million patient visits a year. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
No single school district covers the city. Northside ISD, the largest in the San Antonio area with about 98,000 students, faced a $35 million deficit in March 2026, down from nearly $108 million, and its superintendent said closures were possible but not expected for 2026-27 (KSAT). North East ISD lost about 2,000 students in 2025-26, now serves about 55,000, closed three campuses the year before and will accept students from anywhere in the region from 2026-27 (San Antonio Report). San Antonio ISD has closed 25 schools in the last decade and in March 2026 voted to close Rhodes Middle School and hand three other campuses to a charter operator, Third Future Schools, citing falling enrollment and state accountability ratings. Districts say they cannot yet tell how many students the state's new education savings accounts, which help pay private school tuition from 2026-27, will draw away. UT San Antonio, formed on 2 September 2025 when UTSA merged with UT Health San Antonio, has about 40,000 students and 17,000 employees and calls itself the third-largest public research university in Texas by research spending, and the Alamo Colleges District runs five community colleges.
Living there
San Antonio is the second city of Texas and the seventh-largest in the country, and unlike Dallas it is still growing inside its own limits: it added 14,359 residents in 2024-25, the third-largest gain of any US city, and 8.0% since 2020. The military has shaped it for three centuries, and Joint Base San Antonio, with 74,713 direct employees, sits beside the South Texas Medical Center and a tourism trade Visit San Antonio values at $23.4 billion as the pillars of the economy. Household income is lower than in Dallas or Austin, and 18.0% of residents have no health insurance. VIA runs buses only, 2.4% of workers take them and 68.2% drive alone, and the Green Line along San Pedro Avenue, the city's first rapid transit line, is due in April 2028. Summers are long and dry rather than humid, with 122 days a year at 90F or above and 75 at 100F in 2023, and water is the killer: the creeks rise within minutes, and a single night of rain on 12 June 2025 drowned 13 people. The open questions are fiscal and civic: the council raised the city's property tax rate for the first time since 1992 on a 7 to 4 vote the mayor opposed, with a second increase planned, and the big school districts are shrinking, closing campuses and competing for each other's students as the state's education savings accounts begin.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, but the two prices describe different places. Charlotte's is the Canopy MLS median of what sold inside the city limits, $430,000 in July 2026, 2.3% below a year earlier; the region's was $410,000 and Mecklenburg County's $468,500. San Antonio's is the San Antonio Board of REALTORS' median sale price for Bexar County, $280,999 in August, 3.1% below, a county figure because no city median could be found; the city holds 72% of the county's residents, and Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio itself was $247,453. At 20% down, Charlotte's $344,000 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's rate for 13 August 2026, is $2,213 a month, and San Antonio's $224,799 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $1,500. Property tax is about $3,010 a year in Charlotte, 0.70% of price, against $4,390 from San Antonio's seven taxing units, an effective 1.56% with a homestead and $6,435 without. Insurance is budgeted at $180 and $250 a month, the San Antonio figure an estimate between published averages of $2,866 and $4,565 a year, with no flood policy in it. The three lines come to about $2,644 and $2,116, roughly 37% and 38% of local median income. At the same 7.03% Charlotte's would be about $2,726; the $610 gap is Charlotte's mortgage, about $795 higher, less San Antonio's property tax, $115 higher, and insurance, $70 higher. Rents are on different series, RentCafe's August averages for Charlotte and Apartment List's September medians for San Antonio, because RentCafe refused the request for San Antonio: a one-bedroom at $1,470 against $957, a two-bedroom $1,781 against $1,179.
The crime figures are built differently, and they split. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police counted 5,852 violent offenses in 2025 on UCR summary definitions, about 607 per 100,000 on the city's 964,784 residents, and 35,112 property offenses, about 3,639. San Antonio's are the FBI's summarized counts for the San Antonio Police Department: 8,241 violent offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, 532 per 100,000 on 1,548,422 residents, and 60,693 property offenses, 3,920. Charlotte recorded 96 homicides, about 10 per 100,000, against 110 in 2024; San Antonio 106 in the federal file, about 6.8, against 126. Charlotte improved faster in 2025: violent crime dropped 21% there and 10% in San Antonio, where it is 37% below the 2022 peak of 13,105. Vehicle thefts went from 7,442 to 5,960 in Charlotte, and from a peak of 19,090 in 2023 to 9,527 in San Antonio. CMPD's patch includes unincorporated Mecklenburg, which pushes Charlotte's rates up a little, and the San Antonio counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a federal feed that can still be revised.
San Antonio is warmer in both seasons and drier. January averages 11.2 C at San Antonio International against 5.6 C at Charlotte Douglas, and July 29.3 C against 26.7 C, with 0.5 cm of snow a year against 8.9 cm. San Antonio gets 822 mm of rain against 1,107 mm, and on the older 1961-1990 series less sun, 2,629 hours against 2,821. Summer is long in both and dry only in San Antonio. Charlotte's routine risk is heat indexes above 100F in humid air; San Antonio's normals count 122.4 days a year at 90F or above and 17.7 at or above 37.8 C (100F), and 2023 had 75. The storms differ in kind. Charlotte sits in the path of remnant tropical systems: Hugo hit the city directly in 1989, and Helene devastated the mountains two hours west in 2024 but mostly spared it. San Antonio's hazard is the flash flood off the Balcones Escarpment: 11.26 in (286 mm) fell at the airport on 17 October 1998, and on 12 June 2025 a storm over the Northeast Side killed 13 people, 11 of them along Beitel Creek, where at least 15 vehicles were swept off the Loop 410 frontage road. Winter is where Charlotte's other hazard lies, the ice storm that closes the city for a day or two; San Antonio's is the rare hard freeze, as in February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri brought 9F (-12.8 C) while ERCOT cut power across the state grid and Texas counted 16 of its 246 deaths in Bexar County.
The two metros are about the same size, 2,938,830 people around Charlotte and 2,813,140 around San Antonio in July 2025, and Charlotte's labor market is the larger and tighter. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment in June 2026 was 3.6% in the Charlotte metro and 4.8% around San Antonio, against 4.4% nationally. Charlotte had 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs in June, 1.6% more than a year earlier, and San Antonio 1,191,700 in August, 0.5% more. Charlotte is a banking city, with 128,500 jobs in financial activities around Bank of America, Truist and Wells Fargo. San Antonio's largest sector is trade, transportation and utilities at 216,300 jobs, and its base is the military: the Texas Comptroller counts 74,713 direct employees at Joint Base San Antonio in 2025, 33,256 of them on active duty, and government jobs in the metro fell 3.1% on the year, federal ones 6.7%. UT San Antonio calls health care and biosciences, a $44.1 billion sector, the city's largest industry, and H-E-B, USAA, Valero Energy and iHeartMedia have their headquarters there. Charlotte's average weekly wage was $1,515 in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the national $1,569; San Antonio's profile carries no wage figure. City median household incomes were $86,416 in Charlotte and $66,176 in San Antonio in 2024, and the metros' $85,938 and $78,112. The tax story is North Carolina's flat income tax against none. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025, $3,709 of it to the state, and $13,449 in San Antonio. Sales tax is 8.25% in both. Property tax runs the other way: on the two medians a single filer would need about $45,000 of income before North Carolina's 4.25% took as much as San Antonio's extra $1,380 a year.
Neither is a transit city, and Charlotte has the rail. In 2024, 2.3% of Charlotte workers took transit and 2.4% walked or cycled, against 2.4% and 2.5% in San Antonio, all of it there by bus; 25% of Charlotte's workers worked from home against 11.1%. CATS carried about 15.7 million trips in 2024, roughly 65% of its 2019 level, on the 19-mile LYNX Blue Line and buses; VIA carried 30,665,700 in 2025, all by bus. Both are adding. Mecklenburg voters added a 1 cent sales tax, collected since July 2026 and expected to raise about $19.4 billion over 30 years, 40% of it for rail, with the Red Line commuter rail to Lake Norman first. San Antonio's VIA Rapid Green Line, a $481 million project with a $268 million federal grant committed in December 2024, will run on dedicated bus lanes along San Pedro Avenue from the airport through downtown and is due in April 2028, and an east-west Silver Line is projected for late 2030. The airports are far apart. CLT, one of American's hubs, handled 53.6 million passengers in 2025, about 65% of them connecting; San Antonio International, with no airline hub, handled 10,740,694 and is building Terminal C, with up to 18 gates, for mid-2028.
Health coverage is where the state line shows. North Carolina expanded Medicaid on 1 December 2023, and from 1 January 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month. Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded it and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%; the City of San Antonio's was 18.0% and Bexar County's 15.8%. Charlotte's systems are Atrium Health, whose Carolinas Medical Center is the region's Level I trauma center, with a new Wake Forest medical school campus, and Novant Health. San Antonio has the South Texas Medical Center, more than 900 acres of the Northwest Side, where University Health, the county hospital district, runs University Hospital, 716 beds and a Level I trauma center for adults and children; Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston has about 8,500 staff. Charlotte's profile puts primary care and specialist waits in weeks; San Antonio's did not verify a wait time. The schools are shrinking in both. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, with roughly 140,000 students, fell to its lowest enrollment since 2010-11 in 2025-26. No single district covers San Antonio: Northside ISD, the largest in the area with about 98,000 students, faced a $35 million deficit in March 2026, North East ISD lost about 2,000 students in 2025-26, and San Antonio ISD has closed 25 schools in a decade. UNC Charlotte enrolled a record 32,207 in fall 2025; UT San Antonio, formed by a merger with UT Health San Antonio in September 2025, has about 40,000 students.
What people underestimate is that these are two of the three US cities that grew most in 2024-25. Charlotte added 20,731 residents, the largest numeric gain of any US city, and San Antonio 14,359, the third-largest, after Charlotte's and Fort Worth's; Charlotte grew 10.3% from 2020 to 2025 and San Antonio 8.0%. Both are still filling in their own limits, and San Antonio's can no longer move by force: since 2017 the City can annex only with the owners' or the voters' consent. So San Antonio's $4,390 is the bill for an address inside the City and Northside ISD. The City surrounds separate cities, Alamo Heights, Olmos Park and Terrell Hills among them, and in its extraterritorial jurisdiction Bexar County has created 24 special improvement districts for new subdivisions, 22 of them levying 0.54159 per $100, the City's own rate, on top; a flood policy is a separate premium priced on the address. Neither seller's bill is a guide. Texas lets a homestead's appraised value rise no more than 10% a year, but a buyer starts at full value and has to file for the exemptions. Mecklenburg revalues on 1 January 2027 from assessments the state measured at 88.78% of sale prices, so Charlotte's $3,010 has further to move, and San Antonio's council has just raised the City's own rate for the first time since 1992, from 54.159 cents to 56.288 for fiscal 2027. And the two carries were priced a month apart: at August's 6.67%, San Antonio's would be about $2,062.
Better here
- Property tax on the median is about $3,010 a year for fiscal 2027, 0.70% of price, against $4,390 and an effective 1.56% on the Bexar County median for the 2025 tax year.
- City median household income was $86,416 in 2024 against $66,176 in San Antonio, and the metro's $85,938 against $78,112.
- Unemployment was 3.6% in the metro in June 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 4.8% around San Antonio on the same basis, and nonfarm jobs grew 1.6% against 0.5%.
- North Carolina expanded Medicaid in December 2023, where Texas has not and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, with the City of San Antonio at 18.0%.
- CLT, one of American's hubs, handled 53.6 million passengers in 2025, against 10,740,694 at San Antonio International.
- Property crime ran about 3,639 per 100,000 in 2025 against 3,920 in San Antonio, though the two are built on different counts.
Worse here
- Mecklenburg County's median was $468,500 in July 2026 against the Bexar County median of $280,999 in August, and the city's own was $430,000.
- A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in income tax for 2025, $3,709 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 of federal tax alone in San Antonio.
- Violent crime ran about 607 per 100,000 in 2025 and there were 96 homicides, about 10 per 100,000, against 532 and about 6.8 in San Antonio, though the two are built on different counts.
- Average weekly wages were $1,515 in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the national $1,569.
- CATS carried about 15.7 million trips in 2024, roughly 65% of 2019, against VIA's 30,665,700 in 2025.
- January averages 5.6 C with 8.9 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals and the occasional ice storm that closes the city, against 11.2 C and 0.5 cm in San Antonio.
Choose Charlotte if
- you want the higher city incomes and the tighter labor market of two metros the same size
- you work in banking or corporate finance and want 128,500 financial jobs inside one metro
- you may need Medicaid, or work in a job with thin health coverage
- you would rather have a 26.7 C July and the odd ice storm than 122 days a year at 90F
The Charlotte guide · Neighborhoods · Charlotte rent vs buy · Charlotte mortgage calculator
Better here
- The Bexar County median was $280,999 in August 2026 against Mecklenburg County's $468,500 in July, and Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio stood at $247,453.
- Texas levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025.
- Violent crime ran 532 per 100,000 in 2025 and there were 106 homicides, about 6.8 per 100,000, against about 607 and about 10 in Charlotte, though the two are built on different counts.
- VIA carried 30,665,700 trips in 2025, about twice the 15.7 million CATS carried in 2024, and the Green Line is due in April 2028 with its federal grant committed.
- Joint Base San Antonio had 74,713 direct employees in 2025, and H-E-B, USAA, Valero Energy and iHeartMedia have their headquarters in the city.
- January averages 11.2 C with 0.5 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals, against 5.6 C and 8.9 cm in Charlotte.
Worse here
- Property tax on the Bexar County median is $4,390 a year with a homestead and $6,435 without one, against about $3,010 in Charlotte, and the City's own rate rises for fiscal 2027.
- Home insurance is budgeted at $250 a month against $180 in Charlotte, with no flood policy in it, and a flash flood killed 13 people on 12 June 2025.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, the City of San Antonio's was 18.0%, and in August 2026 Texas was one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- City median household income was $66,176 in 2024 against $86,416 in Charlotte, and unemployment was 4.8% in June 2026 against 3.6%, both not seasonally adjusted.
- San Antonio International handled 10,740,694 passengers in 2025 with no airline hub, against 53.6 million at CLT.
- The normals count 122.4 days a year at 90F or above and 17.7 at or above 37.8 C (100F), and 2023 had 75.
Choose San Antonio if
- you are posted to Joint Base San Antonio, or work in military medicine, health care, insurance at USAA, or tourism
- you rent, or own and earn more than about $45,000, the point where no state income tax outweighs San Antonio's extra property tax on the two medians
- you want a house that costs less in dollars, at about $2,116 a month on the county's median
- you want an 11.2 C January and can live with a long, dry, hot summer
The San Antonio guide · Neighborhoods · San Antonio rent vs buy · San Antonio mortgage calculator
Charlotte or San Antonio, in short
Is Charlotte or San Antonio cheaper to live in?
San Antonio in dollars, and close to level against local pay. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Charlotte's median sale price inside the city was $430,000 in July 2026 and the San Antonio Board of REALTORS' median for all of Bexar County $280,999 in August; county against county it is $468,500 in Mecklenburg against $280,999, and Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio stood at $247,453. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,644 a month in Charlotte and $2,116 in San Antonio, roughly 37% and 38% of each city's median household income. The rates were read a month apart, 6.67% for Charlotte and 7.03% for San Antonio, and at the same 7.03% Charlotte's would be about $2,726. San Antonio gives part of its cheaper house back in property tax, $4,390 a year against $3,010, and insurance, $250 a month against $180, before any flood policy. Renting favors San Antonio on the figures available, $1,179 for a two-bedroom against $1,781, though they are different series, Apartment List's median for San Antonio and RentCafe's average for Charlotte. Sales tax is 8.25% in both, and Charlotte adds North Carolina's income tax, $3,709 on $100,000 for 2025.
Is Charlotte or San Antonio safer?
It splits, on figures built differently. San Antonio's violent crime rate was 532 per 100,000 in 2025 against about 607 in Charlotte, and its homicide rate about 6.8 against about 10: 106 homicides against 96, in a city with 583,638 more residents. Charlotte's property crime rate was the lower, about 3,639 against 3,920. San Antonio's are the FBI's summarized counts for its police department, read on 30 September 2026, which can still be revised. Charlotte's are CMPD's own counts on UCR summary definitions over a patch that includes unincorporated Mecklenburg, which pushes its rates up a little. Both improved in 2025: violent crime dropped 21% in Charlotte and 10% in San Antonio. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate rather than a published rate.
Which has the better job market, Charlotte or San Antonio?
Charlotte's is larger and tighter, though the metros themselves are about the same size. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 3.6% in the Charlotte metro and 4.8% around San Antonio in June 2026, on 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs growing 1.6% in June and 1,191,700 growing 0.5% in August. Charlotte's are concentrated in banking, 128,500 in financial activities around Bank of America, Truist and Wells Fargo. San Antonio's run on the military, with 74,713 direct employees at Joint Base San Antonio in 2025, health care and biosciences, tourism, and the headquarters of H-E-B, USAA and Valero Energy, and its government jobs fell 3.1% on the year. Charlotte's average weekly wage was $1,515 in the fourth quarter of 2025 against $1,569 nationally; San Antonio's profile gives no wage figure. City median household incomes were $86,416 in Charlotte and $66,176 in San Antonio in 2024, and the metros' $85,938 and $78,112.
Does Texas having no income tax make San Antonio cheaper than Charlotte?
For a renter, yes; for an owner at the two medians, above about $45,000 of income. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025, $3,709 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 in federal tax alone in San Antonio, and North Carolina's flat rate drops from 4.25% to 3.99% for 2026. Texas collects through property instead. San Antonio's seven taxing units take $4,390 a year on the Bexar County median with a homestead, an effective 1.56%, against about $3,010 on Charlotte's median, 0.70%, a difference of $1,380 a year, which North Carolina's 4.25% passes at about $45,000 of income. Sales tax is 8.25% in both, so it does not tip the balance. San Antonio's bill can grow in ways Charlotte's cannot: a special improvement district outside the city limits, a buyer taxed on full appraised value rather than the seller's capped one, and a City rate that rises for fiscal 2027. Mecklenburg revalues on 1 January 2027.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Population Growth Holds Steady in Midsized Cities Amid Widespread Slowdown (Vintage 2025 city and town estimates) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- 2020 Census, North Carolina: Total Population by Municipality (PL 94-171) · North Carolina General Assembly · retrieved Supports: Five-year growth
- Resident Population in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (MSA) (CGRPOP) · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- CMPD End of Year Report: Violent, Property and Overall Crime Decrease · Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- NOAA 1991-2020 US Climate Normals, station USW00013881 Charlotte Douglas International Airport (NCEI data service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, January 42.1F, July 80.1F and August 78.6F from the monthly series, and annual mean 61.4F, precipitation 43.60 in and snowfall 3.5 in from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Charlotte, NC profile (ACS 2024 1-year), tables B19013 and B08301 · Census Reporter (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Unemployment Rate in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (MSA) (CHAR737UR) · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Charlotte, NC-SC, Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- Important Notice: Mecklenburg County Sales and Use Tax Increase · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Tax Rate Schedules · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- North Carolina Standard Deduction or North Carolina Itemized Deductions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- CATS sees ridership grow by 11% in last year · WFAE · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- In a historic vote, Mecklenburg transit and transportation sales tax wins approval · WFAE · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Sales tax
- Rapid Response Special Report: Charlotte Area Transit System · North Carolina Office of the State Auditor · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Crime trend
- CLT Welcomes 53.6 Million Passengers in 2025, Second Busiest Year on Record · Charlotte Douglas International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- UNC Charlotte's enrollment surge sets another record · UNC Charlotte University Communications · retrieved Supports: Education
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools enrollment hits lowest since 2010-11 · WSOC-TV · retrieved Supports: Education
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Character
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, San Antonio Police Department (TXSPD0000): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Crime in San Antonio dropped 13% in 2025, SAPD report says · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- San Antonio sees 20% drop in homicides in 2025, new report shows · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012921 San Antonio International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 52.2F, July 84.8F and August 85.5F from the monthly series, and annual mean 69.6F, precipitation 32.38 in, snowfall 0.2 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, San Antonio International Airport (USW00012921), 1946-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 11.26 in on 17 October 1998, 9.87 in on 25 May 2013, 6.11 in on 12 June 2025, 75 days at or above 100F in 2023 and 23 in a row from 30 July to 21 August 2023, 59 in 2009, 58 in 2022, 24 in 2026 through 22 September, 111F on 5 September 2000, 6.2 in of snow from 14 to 18 February 2021 and 9F on 15 February 2021, 6F on 23 December 1989, 0F on 31 January 1949, 13.2 in of snow on 12 January 1985
- October 1998 Flood Event (South Central Texas) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Weather and Climate Billion-Dollar Disasters to affect the U.S. from 1980-2024 (events list) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- October 1998 Central Texas floods · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 12 years ago, San Antonio's Highway 281 was submerged by record flooding during Memorial Day weekend · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Texas flash floods kill 2 in San Antonio · CBS News · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- It's San Antonio's deadliest flood year in 27 years. What's going on? · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Main sectors
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for San Antonio city and the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Bexar County, San Antonio city and the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA (LAUMT484170000000003), Bexar County, the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin MSAs, and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA: total nonfarm (SMU48417000000000001, SMS48417000000000001) and supersectors (SMU484170xx00000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Joint Base San Antonio (Texas military installations economic impact, 2025) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care, Character
- Why SATX (Joint Base San Antonio, Military City USA) · Greater SATX Regional Economic Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Visit San Antonio celebrates National Travel and Tourism Week 2026 · Visit San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Character
- UTSA and UT Health San Antonio complete merger to become The University of Texas at San Antonio · UT San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care, Education
- USAA (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- H-E-B (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Valero Energy (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- iHeartMedia (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (San Antonio MTA, effective January 1, 1978; San Antonio ATD, effective April 1, 2005, raised January 1, 2026) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit system, Transit ridership
- City's proposed plan: Collect sales tax for 4 years before revenue goes to VIA · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- San Antonio approves first property tax hike in 34 years · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- San Antonio council passes FY 2027 budget with higher property tax revenue and fees · News 4 San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- San Antonio approves first tax increase in more than 30 years · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- VIA Metropolitan Transit (routes, fleet, stops, history, Green and Silver lines) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Template:American transit ridership (APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Construction Updates, VIA Rapid Green Line · VIA Metropolitan Transit (Keep SA Moving) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- When will San Pedro construction be complete? Here's what VIA says about progress on the Green Line. · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- San Antonio locks down federal funding for $480M Green Line · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Sales tax
- December & Year End 2025 Statistics · San Antonio International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- December 2024 Statistics (2024 passenger record) · San Antonio International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Terminal Development Program (ELEVATE/SAT) · San Antonio International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- San Antonio International Airport (location, airlines, 2025 statistics) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- San Antonio Medical Foundation marks 75th anniversary · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Health care, Main sectors
- About Us · University Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- University Hospital · University Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- University Health (University Hospital beds, Women's & Children's Hospital) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Northside ISD faces $35 million deficit, but does not anticipate layoffs · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Education
- Like other San Antonio districts, NEISD drops its boundaries · San Antonio Report · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- San Antonio ISD cites declining enrollment, poor academics for school closure · KSAT · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Alamo Colleges District (five colleges) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- More choice, steady sales define Charlotte's July housing market · Canopy Realtor® Association / Canopy MLS · retrieved Supports: City of Charlotte median sale price of $430,000 in July 2026, down 2.3% year over year, with the year-to-date median also $430,000, Charlotte region median sale price of $410,000, up 1.1% year over year, and Mecklenburg County's $468,500, up 2.0%, City of Charlotte inventory of 3,754 homes, up 15.8%, at 3.7 months of supply against 3.2 a year earlier, City of Charlotte days on market of 40, against 38 a year earlier, Regional medians by type: single-family $420,000, townhome $349,990 and condominium $292,000, all of which are regional rather than city figures
- Charlotte, NC average rent and rent trends, August 2026 · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: Average Charlotte apartment rent of $1,672 across 949 sq ft, down 0.92% year over year, Average rents of $1,377 studio, $1,470 one-bedroom, $1,781 two-bedroom and $2,117 three-bedroom
- Charlotte multifamily market insights, 2026 · Northmarq · retrieved Supports: Charlotte apartment vacancy of 6.2%, Approximately 18,000 units under construction, a 6.2% expansion of inventory, More than half of Charlotte apartment properties offering concessions, Eleven consecutive quarters of year-over-year asking rent declines
- Fiscal Year 2026 Fair Market Rents · US Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: Two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,847 for the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia NC-SC HUD Metro FMR Area
- Tax rates, fiscal year 2027 · Mecklenburg County Office of the Tax Collector · retrieved Supports: Mecklenburg County rate of 49.27 cents per $100 of assessed value, unchanged for FY2027, City of Charlotte rate of 29.30 cents per $100, applied on top of the county rate inside the city
- Board of County Commissioners adopts $2.6 billion operating budget for FY2027 · Mecklenburg County · retrieved Supports: The county property tax rate holds at 49.27 cents per $100 for FY2027
- Charlotte City Council adopts the FY2027 budget · WCNC Charlotte · retrieved Supports: City property tax rate rising 1.89 cents from 27.41 to 29.30 cents per $100, adopted 8 June 2026, The increase is dedicated to police and fire pay and raises about $85 million
- Sales assessment ratio studies as of January 1, 2025 · North Carolina Department of Revenue, Local Government Division · retrieved Supports: Mecklenburg County last revalued in 2023, A certified median sales assessment ratio of 88.78%: assessed values are 88.78% of sale prices, An effective county tax rate of 0.4374% against a nominal 0.4927%, computed as rate × assessment level, A coefficient of dispersion of 9.63, among the lowest in the state
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 13 August 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%, against 6.58% a year earlier
- Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau's homeowners' insurance request · North Carolina Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Statewide average base rate increases of 7.5% on 1 June 2025 and 7.5% on 1 June 2026, Charlotte territory increases of 9.3% and 9.2%, No further rate filing before June 2027
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: Baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Mecklenburg County
- San Antonio home sales rise 4% in August as prices hold steady · San Antonio Board of REALTORS · retrieved Supports: Bexar County: 2,068 home sales in August 2026, up 8.8% on the year, at a median price of $280,999, down 3.1%, and an average of $336,979, down 2.6%, The San Antonio area MLS: 3,104 sales, up 4%, at a median of $299,275 and an average of $372,989, released 10 September 2026, The release's table: an area median of $310,000 in August 2025 and $313,995 in August 2024, although its prose calls the median unchanged on the year, 5.87 months of inventory, 16,940 active listings and an average of 82 days on the market, 5,024 active residential rental listings at an average monthly rent of $1,832, down 2%, SABOR's membership serving Atascosa, Bee, Bexar, Frio, Karnes, Kendall, La Salle, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Uvalde, Val Verde and Wilson counties
- South Texas market report: monthly releases · San Antonio Board of REALTORS · retrieved Supports: The monthly MLS releases for January through August 2026, reporting the San Antonio area and Bexar County and no City of San Antonio figure
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $247,453 for the city of San Antonio (region 6915) in August 2026, $253,000 in August 2025, so a fall of 2.2% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $249,206 in the city of San Antonio in August 2026, against $254,823 a year earlier, down 2.2%, A typical condominium value of $167,371 in the same month, against $174,092, down 3.9%, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- San Antonio Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $957 for a one-bedroom and $1,179 for a two-bedroom in the city of San Antonio, and $1,121 across all bedroom sizes, Rents down 0.2% over September and down 4.3% over the past 12 months, against -2.1% for the state
- Apartments for rent in San Antonio, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,069 and up for a studio, $1,141 and up for one bedroom, $1,477 and up for two, and $1,887 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,177 for one bedroom, $1,426 for two and $1,830 for three, as gross rents including utilities, Housing Choice Voucher programs in the metro using Small Area Fair Market Rents set by ZIP code
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,386 for the city of San Antonio in August 2026, against $1,406 a year earlier, down 1.39%
- 2025 official tax rates and exemptions · Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Bexar County 0.276331, Road and Flood Control Fund 0.023668, Hospital District 0.276235, City of San Antonio 0.541590, Northside ISD 1.004900, San Antonio ISD 1.155200, Alamo Community College District 0.149150, San Antonio River Authority 0.018300, Homestead exemptions of $5,000 or 20% for Bexar County, the Hospital District and the City; $3,000 and 20% for the Road and Flood Control Fund; $5,000 or 1% for the college district; $5,000 or 4% for the River Authority; $140,000 for Northside ISD; $140,000 and 0.01% for San Antonio ISD, San Antonio Municipal Utility District No. 1 at 0.20, twelve emergency service districts at up to 0.10, and 24 special improvement districts, 22 of them at 0.541590, The Downtown Public Improvement District at 0.15, and 0.09 on condominiums, Official tables from 2005 to 2025 and none yet for 2026, from https://www.bexar.org/1591/Tax-Rates
- 2024 actual tax rates and 2025 actual tax rates, as of 5 December 2025 · Bexar Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 rates to the sixth decimal, and each unit's 2024 rate beside it: the City, the county, the Road and Flood fund, the Hospital District, the college district and Northside ISD unchanged, and the River Authority up from 0.017870, Local option homestead exemptions not less than $5,000, and the Road and Flood fund's $3,000 homestead exemption, Redbird Ranch water districts at 1.00 per $100
- 2025 tax rate calculation worksheets: City of San Antonio · Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: A debt rate of 0.21150 per $100 within the City's 0.54159, leaving 0.33009 for maintenance and operations, The same 0.54159 adopted for the 2024 tax year
- Valuing property: limitation on residence homestead value increases · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year once the owner has qualified in the preceding and current year
- Property tax protests and appeals · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A protest deadline of 15 May or 30 days after the appraisal district mails the notice of appraised value, whichever is later
- 2020 block assignment files, Texas: unified school districts and places · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Read with the 2020 redistricting file's block populations, at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/01-Redistricting_File--PL_94-171/Texas/tx2020.pl.zip, Of the City of San Antonio's 1,434,625 residents in 2020: 468,901 in Northside ISD, 368,830 in North East ISD, 298,175 in San Antonio ISD, 59,802 in Harlandale ISD, 56,792 in Edgewood ISD and 45,376 in South San Antonio ISD, 298,175 of San Antonio ISD's 300,690 residents inside the city, and 468,901 of Northside ISD's 665,676
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 498.979 square miles and a water area of 5.735 square miles for San Antonio city
- Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) · City of San Antonio Planning Department · retrieved Supports: The ETJ as the unincorporated land within five miles of the City's boundaries and not within another city's limits or ETJ, The area in which the City may annex land, with the consent of the landowner or voter approval, Senate Bill 2038, effective 1 September 2023, establishing a petition and election process for releasing property from a city's ETJ
- ETJ planning · City of San Antonio Planning Department · retrieved Supports: Two Military Protection Areas, within five miles of Camp Bullis and the Lackland Training Annex, developed as a direct result of a 2017 state law curtailing unilateral annexation by Texas cities
- Annexation and growth management policy, adopted 31 August 2023 · City of San Antonio Planning Department · retrieved Supports: Senate Bill 6 (2017) curtailing the annexation powers of cities in counties of more than 500,000 people, such as San Antonio, and requiring landowner or voter approval, Elections called in 2018 for areas within five miles of Camp Bullis-Camp Stanley and Lackland Air Force Base-Medina Training Annex, where owners chose land use controls rather than annexation, Chapter 382 public improvement districts created by the county with the City's written consent as the most common special district request
- Public improvement districts and special districts · City of San Antonio Planning Department · retrieved Supports: Special districts in the City's ETJ, including Chapter 382 public improvement districts, also called special improvement districts, water control and improvement districts and fresh water supply districts, Districts created by the county at a landowner's request with the City's consent, conditioned through development agreements
- Our history · CPS Energy · retrieved Supports: The nation's largest public power, natural gas and electric company, serving more than 996,000 electric and 399,000 natural gas customers, $10.6 billion in revenue generated for the City of San Antonio since 1942, Acquired by the City of San Antonio on 24 October 1942
- Edwards Aquifer · San Antonio Water System · retrieved Supports: About 47%, some 154,000 acre-feet, of the water SAWS customers used in 2025 came from the Edwards Aquifer, Permitted withdrawals subject to cutbacks of zero to 44% in critical periods
- Water supplies · San Antonio Water System · retrieved Supports: In 1995 all of San Antonio's water came from the Edwards Aquifer; SAWS now manages 13 supply projects from seven sources
- Stage 3 watering rules · San Antonio Water System · retrieved Supports: Stage 3 rules in effect on 30 September 2026: landscape watering once a week, on the customer's day, from 5 to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight
- Stormwater fee · San Antonio Water System · retrieved Supports: SAWS bills the City of San Antonio's stormwater fee on the City's behalf, Residential rates of $3.75 a month up to 2,750 square feet of impervious area, $4.94 to 4,220 square feet and $10.45 above it
- Solid waste rates and fees · City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department · retrieved Supports: Monthly totals of $19.76, $25.26 and $35.75 for the small, medium and large garbage cart, including the $3.00 solid waste and $2.00 parks environmental fees, The fee shown and collected on the CPS Energy bill, with no additional fee for the recycling and organics carts
- June 11 to 12, 2025 San Antonio area flood event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: 13 fatalities from flooding across the San Antonio area, 12 in the Beitel Creek basin and one in the Leon Creek basin, 15 vehicles swept into Beitel Creek from the Loop 410 frontage road near Perrin Beitel Road, 3.98 inches of rain in one hour at San Antonio International Airport, the highest hourly rate on record since 1934
- San Antonio, TX · Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas · retrieved Supports: The flood of 9 and 10 September 1921, which put up to twelve feet of water downtown and killed at least fifty-one people, and the Olmos Dam and river bypass built after it
- Home, flood, wind: which policies do you need? · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Most home policies do not cover floods; a flood policy covers damage from rising water
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year
- How much is homeowners insurance in San Antonio, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average San Antonio premium of $2,866 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, An average of $2,222 a year for $200,000 of dwelling cover
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average San Antonio premium of $4,565 a year for $500,000 of dwelling cover, $300,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average San Antonio renters premium of $167 a year, $14 a month, for $30,000 of personal property, updated 23 September 2026
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, San Antonio city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $60 among San Antonio owner-occupied units that pay one, 110,122 of 295,530 owner-occupied units, or 37.3%, paying such a fee, and 4,864 paying $500 or more a month
- Homeownership Incentive Programs (HIP) · City of San Antonio Neighborhood and Housing Services Department · retrieved Supports: HIP 80: $1,000 to $30,000 as a 0% interest, no-payment second loan, the first $15,000 forgiven over five years and the rest over ten, on an existing home up to $260,000 or a new one up to $284,000, with 2026 income limits of $56,350 for one person to $80,500 for four, HIP 120: $1,000 to $15,000, 75% forgiven over ten years and 25% perpetual, on an existing home up to $301,700 or a new one up to $332,800, with income limits of $84,500 for one person to $120,700 for four, A HUD-approved eight-hour homebuyer class, a home inside the city limits and a $500 minimum earnest money deposit
- HIP 80 and HIP 120 general information · City of San Antonio Neighborhood and Housing Services Department · retrieved Supports: Both programs for income-eligible first-time homebuyers buying a primary residence, which must pass a HIP property review and inspection, The remaining balance repaid in part on a change of ownership, a sale or a cash-out refinance, from this sheet and the HIP 120 sheet at https://www.sa.gov/files/assets/main/v/5/nhsd/documents/hip120-generalinformation.pdf