Orlando vs San Antonio: which should you move to?
Orlando 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.
Both cities price in US dollars and neither state taxes income, so the figures net directly, a single filer on $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax in each, and the tax story is the house. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,745 a month on Orlando's typical home and about $2,116 on the San Antonio Board of REALTORS' Bexar County median, a county figure, a $629 gap that would be about $700 with Orlando's payment at San Antonio's September rate of 7.03% rather than August's 6.67%. On the same Zillow index Orlando's typical home was $375,175, and Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio stood at $247,453. Against local pay the gap narrows, 42% of the City of Orlando's median household income against 38% of San Antonio's. Renting is San Antonio's by a wide margin, $1,179 for a two-bedroom against $1,904. On crime only homicide lines up: 10 in Orlando in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000, against 106 in San Antonio, about 6.8. Both cities live partly on visitors and both metros are growing faster than their cities; San Antonio adds a military base with 74,713 direct employees. Choose Orlando for a 15.9 C January, a far larger airport and the lower homicide rate. Choose San Antonio to rent, to own for less, and for military and medical work.
| Measure | Orlando | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 333,888 (2025) | 1,548,422 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 2,957,672 (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. | 8.3% (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 | Orlando | 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. | $375,175 (June 2026) | $280,999 (August 2026) | San Antonio |
| Detached house benchmark Orlando publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $375,175 | $249,206 | San Antonio |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | Not published | $167,371 | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,904/mo (median, June 2026) | $1,179/mo (median, September 2026) | San Antonio |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,637/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. | 29.4% 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. | $1,931/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. | 4.8× | 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. | $6,043/yr (1.611%, 2025) | $4,389/yr (1.562%, 2025) | San Antonio |
| 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. | $2,626 (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 |
Orlando: About 1.61% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 18.0878 mills Orlando is taxed at, and the difference is the homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. Florida assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price, so there is no gap to correct for. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the Orange County school district, which levies 6.4490 of the 18.0878. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. So a homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is the school millage on the price less $25,000 plus everything else on the price less $50,000, about $6,043 a year on the $375,175 typical home value here. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy, and until you do the rate is the full 1.81%. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is. 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 | Orlando | 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 | 836 (2022) | 532 (2025) | San Antonio |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 4,036 (2022) | 3,920 (2025) | San Antonio |
| 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. | 10 (2025) | 106 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
Orlando PD reports overall crime down 18% in 2024 and another 19% in 2025, violent crime down 10% in 2024 and 9% in 2025, and shootings with victims down 41% from 2023 to 2025. Homicides fell from 31 in 2023 to 10 in 2025. The FBI's public feed has no usable Orlando data after 2022, so these are the department's own figures.
What the rates cover: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department (ORI FL0480400), 2022: 2,597 violent offenses, 835.8 per 100k. 2022 is the last year with twelve complete months in the FBI feed; 2023 through 2025 show zeros for this agency, so no FBI rate exists for those years. Orlando PD's own count of violent crime incidents (a broader in-house definition) was 6,754 in 2023 and 5,928 in 2025, which would be about 1,775 per 100k on the 2025 population.
Homicides: Orlando Police Department: 10 homicides in 2025, the lowest since 1971, down from 23 in 2024 and 31 in 2023 (OPD's 2023 figure was reported as 38 in a January 2025 release and 31 in the February 2026 release). About 3.0 per 100k on the 2025 city population. FBI CDE 2022: 32 homicides, 10.3 per 100k.
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 | Orlando | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 15.9 °C | 11.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 28.1 °C | 29.3 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,307 mm | 822 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 0 cm | 1 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | Not published | 2,629 hours | Not directly comparable |
NOAA 1991-2020 normals at Orlando International Airport (USW00012815): January mean 60.6F, July mean 82.6F, annual precipitation 51.45 in, annual snowfall 0.0 in, annual mean 73.0F. June through September each average 6.4 to 8.1 in of rain. Sunshine hours are not part of the NOAA normals product and were not verified.
Hazards: Hurricanes are the main hazard: Charley (2004), Irma (2017), Ian (2022, 14 in of rain and 74 mph gusts at MCO) and Milton (2024, over 15 in of rain in parts of Central Florida plus a record one-day tornado outbreak) all damaged the area. The city sits about 100 ft above sea level and 42 mi inland, so storm surge is not a concern but inland flooding, wind damage and long power outages are. Summer heat and daily thunderstorms with lightning are routine.
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 | Orlando | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $77,597 USD (2024) | $66,176 USD (2024) | Orlando |
| Unemployment rate | 4.6% (June 2026) | 4.7% (July 2026) | Orlando |
| Sales tax | 6.5% | 8.25% | Orlando |
| 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. | 37% | 37% | Even |
| 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. | $13,449 USD | $13,449 USD | Even |
Leisure and hospitality employed 305,500 of 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in the MSA in June 2026 (BLS CES, not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), about 20%, roughly double the national share, and those jobs pay below the private-sector average, which is why household income trails the US median despite fast job growth. Disney is the largest employer at about 77,000 in the region; AdventHealth employs about 37,700 and Lockheed Martin more than 14,000.
Main sectors: Tourism and hospitality (Disney, Universal, convention centre), Health care (AdventHealth, Orlando Health), Aerospace, defence and simulation (Lockheed Martin, Central Florida Research Park), Construction and real estate, Professional and business services.
No state or city income tax. Property tax runs around 1% of assessed value with a homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% cap for owner-occupiers; not verified here.
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 | Orlando | San Antonio | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | LYNX (bus, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties), SunRail (commuter rail, 16 stations DeLand to Poinciana), Brightline (intercity rail from MCO to South Florida) | 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 | 1.5% (2024) | 2.4% (2024) | San Antonio |
| Walk or cycle to work | 1.7% (2024) | 2.5% (2024) | San Antonio |
| Airport | Orlando International Airport (MCO), 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, up 0.8% on 2024, seventh busiest in the US (GOAA press release, July 28, 2026). | 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 |
LYNX carried 21,476,203 passenger trips in FY2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), more than 67,000 per weekday, on 62 routes (LYNX Facts at a Glance). SunRail passed 1.2 million riders in calendar 2024, up 12% on 2023 (SunRail press release, January 2025); APTA puts 2025 at about 1.32 million. SunRail runs weekdays only.
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 marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid; Florida did not expand Medicaid under the ACA, so a larger share of working adults is uninsured than in most states, and hospitality jobs often come with thin coverage. Two large non-profit systems dominate: AdventHealth Orlando (one of the biggest hospitals in the country) and Orlando Health with Orlando Regional Medical Center, the region's Level I trauma centre, plus Nemours Children's Hospital at Lake Nona and the UCF Lake Nona Hospital.
Education
The University of Central Florida enrols about 70,000 students, among the largest campuses in the US, and anchors the Central Florida Research Park; Rollins College in Winter Park and Valencia College (a two-year college with a national Aspen Prize) are the other main institutions. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the US with roughly 200,000 students, and Florida's universal school-choice vouchers, charter schools and magnet programmes mean many families do not attend their zoned school.
Living there
Orlando is a sprawling, car-first region of master-planned subdivisions, toll roads and strip centres, with a small walkable core around Lake Eola, Thornton Park, Mills 50 and College Park, and the theme parks 15 miles southwest in a separate world of their own. Summers are long, humid and stormy, winters mild, and the population skews young and Latino, with the largest Puerto Rican community in Florida. Housing and insurance costs have risen faster than the tourism-weighted wages, and hurricane season shapes the calendar every year.
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, though the headlines are different instruments. Orlando's is Zillow's typical home value for the city across all homes, $375,175 in June 2026, 2.4% below a year earlier. 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 of San Antonio median could be found; Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio, the like-for-like figure, stood at $247,453 in August, and Orlando's typical home is about 1.5 times it. Against local pay the headlines are 4.8 times the City of Orlando's 2024 median household income of $77,597 and about 4.2 times San Antonio's $66,176. At 20% down, Orlando's $300,140 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's August rate, costs $1,931 a month, and San Antonio's $224,799 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $1,500. A homesteaded Orlando buyer's first-year bill is about $6,043, 1.61% of the price, and San Antonio's seven taxing units take $4,390, 1.56%. Insurance is budgeted at $310 a month against $250, neither including flood. The three lines come to about $2,745 and $2,116, roughly 42% and 38% of local median income; at 7.03% Orlando's would be about $2,816. Renting is not close: a median two-bedroom was $1,904 in Orlando in June 2026 and $1,179 in San Antonio in September, and a one-bedroom $1,637 against $957.
Only San Antonio has current federal crime figures, so most of this comparison cannot be made like for like. The FBI's feed carries no complete Orlando Police data after 2022, when it published 835.8 violent and 4,035.6 property offenses per 100,000, and shows zeros for 2023 through 2025. San Antonio's 2025 rates on the FBI's counts are 532 violent and 3,920 property offenses per 100,000, on the Census estimate of 1,548,422. Orlando Police's own 2025 tally of violent incidents, 5,928 on a broader definition, works out near 1,775 per 100,000, which cannot sit beside San Antonio's 532, and San Antonio's department publishes its own broader count too, 28,361 crimes against persons, simple assaults included, from January to November 2025. Homicide is the one count kept the same way. Orlando recorded 10 in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and its fewest since 1971, against 31 in 2023; San Antonio recorded 106 in the federal file, about 6.8, against 126 in 2024 and 233 in 2022, a count that includes the 53 migrants found dead in a tractor-trailer on the Southwest Side. Both report crime improving. Orlando's department puts overall crime 19% lower in 2025 after an 18% drop in 2024, and San Antonio's FBI violent count dropped 10% in 2025 and is 37% below its 2022 peak, with robberies down 17%. The San Antonio counts, read on 30 September 2026, can still be revised.
Orlando has the warmer, wetter year and San Antonio the hotter, drier summer. January averages 15.9 C at Orlando International against 11.2 C at San Antonio International, and July 28.1 C against 29.3 C. Orlando gets 1,307 mm a year and no snow, San Antonio 822 mm and 0.5 cm. Orlando's heat is humid, with daily thunderstorms and lightning; San Antonio International's normals count 122.4 days a year at 90F or above and 17.7 at or above 37.8 C (100F), and its record is 111F (43.9 C). Both cities are inland, and in both the dangerous water comes from rain rather than the sea. Charley in 2004, Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022, with 14 in of rain and 74 mph gusts at the airport, and Milton in 2024 all damaged the Orlando area, but the city sits about 100 ft above sea level and 42 mi inland, so surge is not the risk; wind, inland flooding and long power outages are. San Antonio's risk is the flash flood off the Balcones Escarpment, where shallow soil over limestone sends heavy rain straight into the creeks: 11.26 in (286 mm) fell at the airport on 17 October 1998, still its wettest day, and on 12 June 2025 more than 7 in fell in three hours on the Northeast Side and 13 people died. Hard cold is rare and badly handled there: Winter Storm Uri brought 9F (-12.8 C) and 6.2 in (15.7 cm) of snow in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid.
Both economies lean on visitors, and Orlando's leans harder. On the same unadjusted basis, metro unemployment was 4.6% in greater Orlando in June 2026 and 4.7% around San Antonio in July, up from 4.2% a year earlier. Greater Orlando had 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in June, 305,500 of them in leisure and hospitality, about one in five and roughly double the national share, at pay below the private-sector average; Disney alone employs about 77,000 in the region. The San Antonio metro's 1,191,700 grew 0.5% in the year to August 2026, the largest sector trade, transportation and utilities at 216,300, and Visit San Antonio counts more than 150,000 tourism jobs and $23.4 billion of economic impact in 2024. San Antonio's other pillar is the military: Joint Base San Antonio counted 74,713 direct employees in 2025, and the Texas Comptroller estimates it supported 223,349 jobs in the state. Health care is large in both, with AdventHealth employing about 37,700 around Orlando and a sector UT San Antonio values at $44.1 billion in San Antonio. Median household income was $77,597 in the City of Orlando and $66,176 in San Antonio in 2024, and $81,044 and $78,112 across the metros. Neither state taxes income, so a single filer on $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax for 2025. Sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County against 8.25%. Property tax and insurance come to about $9,763 a year on Orlando's typical home and $7,390 on the Bexar County median.
A car is assumed in both; San Antonio carries more riders, and only Orlando has trains. In 2024, 2.4% of San Antonio workers took transit and 2.5% walked or cycled, against 1.5% and 1.7% in the City of Orlando; 11.1% of San Antonio workers worked from home against 13.2%, and 68.2% drove alone. VIA carried 30,665,700 trips in 2025 on 95 bus routes, three of them Primo rapid lines, and its first rapid transit line, the $481 million Green Line along San Pedro Avenue from the airport through downtown, is a bus line with dedicated lanes, under construction and due in April 2028. LYNX carried 21,476,203 trips in fiscal 2025 on 62 routes across three counties, SunRail runs commuter trains through 16 stations from DeLand to Poinciana on weekdays only, at about 1.2 million riders in 2024, and Brightline runs from the airport to South Florida. The airports are far apart. Orlando International handled 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, seventh busiest in the country; San Antonio International, with no airline hub, handled 10,740,694 and a record 274,847,470 pounds of cargo, and is building a terminal it says will add up to 18 gates by mid-2028.
Neither state has expanded Medicaid, so coverage in both runs through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and hospitality jobs in Orlando often carry thin coverage. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of San Antonio's was 18.0%; Orlando's profile gives no rate. Orlando's hospitals are two large non-profits, AdventHealth Orlando and Orlando Health, whose Orlando Regional Medical Center is the region's Level I trauma center, with Nemours Children's at Lake Nona. San Antonio's are clustered in the South Texas Medical Center, more than 900 acres on the Northwest Side, where University Health's University Hospital is a 716-bed teaching hospital and a Level I trauma center for adults and children; Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston has about 8,500 staff. Neither profile verified a wait time for care. Both school systems run on choice. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the country at roughly 200,000 students, and Florida's universal vouchers, charters and magnets mean many families never use their zoned school. No single district covers San Antonio: Northside ISD, the largest, has about 98,000 students and faced a $35 million deficit in March 2026, North East ISD will accept students from anywhere in the region from 2026-27, San Antonio ISD has closed 25 schools in a decade, and Texas's education savings accounts begin paying toward private tuition that year. UCF enrolls about 70,000 students and UT San Antonio about 40,000.
What people underestimate is the levy on a newer house, which both metros have and neither figure here includes, and how much of the growth lands outside each city. Much of the Orlando metro's newer housing, Lake Nona inside the city among it, carries a community development district assessment of roughly $1,200 to $3,000 a year, which appears in no millage. Around San Antonio it sits outside the limits: in the City's 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, so a new house with a San Antonio mailing address can pay what the City charges without being in it. The typical address inside the city pays none of them, but San Antonio's $4,390 holds only inside Northside ISD; the same house in San Antonio ISD owes about $4,544. Both metros are growing faster than their cities, Orlando's by 10.3% since 2020 against 8.3% in the city, and San Antonio's by 10.0% against 8.0%. Save Our Homes resets a Florida assessment to market value the January after a sale, and until the buyer files for the homestead by 1 March the rate is the full 1.81%; a Texas buyer starts at full appraised value, and San Antonio's bill without a homestead is $6,435. The City of San Antonio also raised its own rate in September 2026 for the first time since 1992, after these figures. At closing Florida charges the buyer 0.55% of the loan, about $1,651 on Orlando's, where Texas has no transfer tax and the seller customarily buys the buyer's owner's title policy, about $1,674 at the Bexar County median.
Better here
- Orlando Police recorded 10 homicides in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and the fewest since 1971, against 106 and about 6.8 in San Antonio.
- January averages 15.9 C with no snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 11.2 C in San Antonio, where Winter Storm Uri brought 9F (-12.8 C) in February 2021.
- Orlando International handled 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, seventh busiest in the country, against 10,740,694 at San Antonio International.
- SunRail and Brightline run passenger trains, where San Antonio has no rail and its first rapid bus line is due in April 2028.
- City median household income was $77,597 in 2024 against $66,176 in San Antonio, and sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County against 8.25%.
- Metro median household income was $81,044 in 2024 against $78,112 around San Antonio, and unemployment 4.6% in June 2026 against 4.7% in July, both not seasonally adjusted.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,745 a month on the June 2026 typical home, and about $2,816 at September's 7.03%, against $2,116 on the Bexar County median.
- 305,500 of the metro's 1,506,600 jobs are in leisure and hospitality at below-average pay, about one in five and roughly double the national share.
- The FBI's feed has no complete Orlando Police data after 2022, when violent crime ran 835.8 per 100,000, so no current federal rate stands against San Antonio's 532 for 2025.
- A median two-bedroom rented for $1,904 in June 2026 against $1,179 in San Antonio in September, and a one-bedroom $1,637 against $957.
- A homesteaded buyer's first-year property tax is about $6,043, 1.61% of price, against $4,390 and 1.56% on the Bexar County median, and insurance is $310 a month against $250.
- A Florida buyer pays 0.55% of the loan at closing, about $1,651 on the June 2026 typical home, where Texas has no transfer tax, and newer houses often carry a district assessment of $1,200 to $3,000 a year.
Choose Orlando if
- you want a January at 15.9 C and an inland address where surge is not the risk
- you work in tourism, aerospace or simulation, or remotely
- you want a homicide rate of about 3.0 per 100,000 rather than about 6.8
- you fly often enough that the country's seventh busiest airport changes how you travel
The Orlando guide · Neighborhoods · Orlando rent vs buy · Orlando mortgage calculator
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,116 a month on the Bexar County median of August 2026, roughly 38% of local median income, against about $2,745 and 42% on Orlando's typical home.
- A median two-bedroom rented for $1,179 in September 2026, about 21% of the city's median household income, against $1,904 in Orlando in June, about 29%.
- Property tax on the county median is $4,390 a year with a homestead, an effective 1.56% for 2025, against 1.61% on Orlando's typical home, and the buyer pays no transfer tax.
- Violent crime was 532 per 100,000 in 2025 on the FBI's own counts, a current federal rate Orlando has not had since 2022, and it dropped 10% in the year.
- Joint Base San Antonio counted 74,713 direct employees in 2025, and the Texas Comptroller estimates it supported 223,349 jobs in the state, so the economy leans less on visitors.
- VIA carried 30,665,700 trips in 2025 against LYNX's 21,476,203, and 2.4% of workers commuted by transit in 2024 against 1.5% in Orlando.
Worse here
- There were 106 homicides in 2025, about 6.8 per 100,000, against 10 and about 3.0 in Orlando.
- Flash floods killed 13 people on 12 June 2025, and the $250 a month insurance budget has no flood policy in it.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of San Antonio's was 18.0%.
- The normals count 122.4 days a year at 90F or above and 17.7 at or above 37.8 C (100F), and the airport recorded 75 days at 100F in 2023.
- San Antonio International handled 10,740,694 passengers in 2025 with no airline hub, against 57,675,573 at Orlando International.
- City median household income was $66,176 in 2024 against $77,597, and sales tax is 8.25% against 6.5% in Orange County.
Choose San Antonio if
- you rent, and would pay about $1,179 for a two-bedroom rather than $1,904
- you want to own for about 38% of local median income a month rather than 42%, and will check a new-build address for a special district first
- you work at Joint Base San Antonio, in military medicine, health care or biosciences
- you would take a drier heat and 822 mm of rain over a humid summer and a hurricane season
The San Antonio guide · Neighborhoods · San Antonio rent vs buy · San Antonio mortgage calculator
Orlando or San Antonio, in short
Is Orlando or San Antonio cheaper to live in?
San Antonio, in dollars and by a wide margin to rent, and by less against what people earn. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Orlando's typical home was $375,175 in June 2026 on Zillow's all-homes index, and the San Antonio Board of REALTORS' Bexar County median $280,999 in August, a county figure; Zillow's index for the City of San Antonio stood at $247,453. The mortgage at 20% down is $1,931 against about $1,500, though Orlando's uses August's 6.67% rate and San Antonio's September's 7.03%. Property tax is about $6,043 a year against $4,390 and insurance $310 a month against $250, so the three lines come to about $2,745 in Orlando and $2,116 in San Antonio, or about $2,816 for Orlando at the same 7.03%, and roughly 42% and 38% of local median income. That is before flood cover and before any district levy on a newer house in either. A median two-bedroom was $1,179 in San Antonio in September 2026 against $1,904 in Orlando in June. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County against 8.25% in San Antonio.
Is Orlando or San Antonio safer?
Only homicide can be compared cleanly, and on it Orlando is lower. Orlando Police recorded 10 homicides in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and the fewest since 1971; San Antonio recorded 106 in the FBI's file, about 6.8, against 126 in 2024. San Antonio's violent rate was 532 per 100,000 and its property rate 3,920 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, read on 30 September 2026 and still open to revision. Orlando has no FBI rate after 2022, when it was 835.8 violent and 4,035.6 property offenses per 100,000, and its department's own 2025 tally uses a broader definition that lands near 1,775 per 100,000, which cannot sit beside San Antonio's 532. Both report crime improving: Orlando's department puts overall crime 19% lower in 2025, and San Antonio's FBI violent count dropped 10%.
Which has the better job market, Orlando or San Antonio?
Orlando's is larger and more tied to one industry; unemployment is about level. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 4.6% in greater Orlando in June 2026 and 4.7% around San Antonio in July. Greater Orlando had 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in June 2026, 305,500 of them in leisure and hospitality at below the private-sector average, with Disney at about 77,000, AdventHealth at about 37,700 and Lockheed Martin at more than 14,000. The San Antonio metro's 1,191,700 grew 0.5% in the year to August 2026, the largest sector trade, transportation and utilities, with Joint Base San Antonio's 74,713 direct employees, health care and biosciences and tourism behind it, and H-E-B, USAA, Valero and iHeartMedia headquartered in the city; federal government employment there fell 6.7% over the year. Median household income was $81,044 across the Orlando metro in 2024 and $78,112 around San Antonio, and $77,597 in the City of Orlando against $66,176 in the City of San Antonio.
What does a listing leave out in Orlando and in San Antonio?
The levy on a newer house and the reset after a sale. Much of the Orlando metro's newer housing, Lake Nona inside the city among it, carries a community development district assessment of roughly $1,200 to $3,000 a year that appears in no millage. Around San Antonio the equivalent sits outside the city: Bexar County has created 24 special improvement districts in the City's extraterritorial jurisdiction, 22 of them levying 0.54159 per $100, the City's own rate, and a San Antonio mailing address is not proof of a City of San Antonio one. San Antonio's $4,390 also describes an address inside Northside ISD; one in San Antonio ISD owes about $4,544 on the same house. In both states the seller's bill is no guide. Save Our Homes resets a Florida assessment to market value the January after a sale, and the full 1.81% applies until the buyer files for the homestead by 1 March; a Texas buyer starts at full appraised value, and the San Antonio bill without a homestead is $6,435. Neither state's figure here includes flood insurance.
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.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Florida: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, crime.homicides rate
- Annual Resident Population Estimates for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department summarized offenses (violent crime, property crime, homicide), 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, crime.homicides 2022
- Proactive policing in Orlando yields significant crime reductions · WFTV · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend, crime notes
- Police say crimes, including homicides, declining in Orlando · Spectrum News 13 · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Orlando Police: 2025 violent crime down 9 percent in the City Beautiful · Headline Surfer · retrieved Supports: Crime trend, crime.homicides 2024
- Orlando Police Department releases 2024 crime statistics · WFTV via Yahoo News · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012815 (Orlando International Airport), monthly and annual · NOAA NCEI · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Orlando, Florida (climate and hurricane history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, character
- Hurricane Milton · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year, tables B19013 and B08301, Orlando city and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA · US Census Bureau via Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, series LAUMT123674000000003 (Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA unemployment rate) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, series SMU12367400000000001 and SMU12367407000000001 (Orlando MSA total nonfarm and leisure and hospitality) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Top employers and talent report search results (Disney, AdventHealth, Lockheed Martin employment) · Orlando Economic Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Orange County, Florida sales tax rate 2026 · Avalara · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Facts at a Glance · LYNX (Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- SunRail Ridership Grows to 1.2 Million Riders in 2024 · SunRail · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Orlando International Moves Up In 2025 National Rankings for Busiest Airport · Greater Orlando Aviation Authority · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- 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
- 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
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals
- 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
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-two of the twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte metro pages use, so the two American metros can be read against each other
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Orange County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Orange County general at 4.4347 mills, the library district at 0.3748 and the St Johns River Water Management District at 0.1793, School state and local levies totalling 6.449 mills, Municipal rates from Windermere's 3.7425 to Eatonville's 7.2938, A published total against every mill code, including Winter Park's 15.3615 on codes 2, 4 and 6, Maitland's 16.3055 on code 6, and Windermere's 15.2311 on code 35 and 15.4839 on code 75, A blank library column on every Winter Park and Maitland code, which is what puts both municipalities outside the district
- Special taxing district information: the Orange County Library District's boundary · Orange County Library System · retrieved Supports: The district's boundary is Orange County exclusive of Winter Park and Maitland, each of which operates its own library, Laws of Florida chapter 99-486 as the enabling act behind it
- Final 2025 Millage Rates, fiscal year 2025-26 · Seminole County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Total millage by taxing authority for every Seminole municipality, from Lake Mary's 14.3929 to Casselberry's 18.1808, School required local and discretionary levies totalling 5.2490 mills, The county fire and road MSTUs, which apply in the unincorporated area and in some cities but not others
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Osceola County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Kissimmee at 17.4114 mills and Saint Cloud at 17.8989, School levies totalling 5.3060 mills across required local, discretionary and capital, Dozens of separate municipal service taxing units in the unincorporated county, from 0.13 to 12.42 mills, which is why an unincorporated Osceola address cannot be given one rate
- 2025 Final Millage Rates by district, and the 2025 Final Millage Rates and Values Comparison Sheet · Lake County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Total millage for every Lake municipality, from Leesburg's 15.9477 to Eustis's 19.8623, Leesburg's own adopted rate of 3.4752 mills, on the district sheet and again as the 2025 adopted rate on the comparison sheet, School board state and local levies totalling 6.0850 mills, The county fire, ambulance and stormwater MSTUs and which municipalities are subject to them, including that an incorporated city pays neither the fire nor the stormwater MSTU
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 population estimates for each municipality, Leesburg's growth from 27,011 to 37,815, the fastest in the metro in percentage terms, Orlando at 334,854, which is twelve percent of its own metropolitan area
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- Average cost of homeowners insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Florida average of about $3,815 a year against a national average of about $2,543, Orange County premiums in the $3,200 to $4,500 range, at the cheaper end of the state because the metro is inland
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which applies in every county in this metro
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
- 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