Live in Highland Park

In 1909 investors organized as the Highland Park Improvement Company bought 780 acres owned by Albert Steves Jr. southeast of downtown, and with a streetcar line it became the largest suburb in San Antonio. The subdivision was built out from 1913, the neighborhood grew fast through the 1920s, and the City bought land for its park in 1925. This guide takes the area the Highland Park Neighborhood Association files on the City's registry: about 1,130 acres between Interstate 10 and Fair Avenue, and between Interstate 37 and Clark Avenue, with South New Braunfels Avenue down the middle. The 2020 census counted 11,653 residents there, 8.9% fewer than on the same blocks in 2010.

Owners still hold most of the houses. In 2020 owners lived in 2,775 of the 4,556 occupied homes, 61%, and 1,269 of them owned outright, with no mortgage; 1,781 homes were rented and 476 stood empty. The association's president wrote in 2018 that most homes are single-family and that a number have passed from generation to generation. An architect who bought here wrote in 2012 that houses mostly come up when older owners move away, and need updating.

Nothing in the City's code reviews the front of a house here. None of the City's 32 historic districts or ten neighborhood conservation districts overlaps the association's line, so the bungalows and Spanish Revival houses that survived the interstates stand under ordinary zoning. The exceptions are six parcels designated as individual landmarks, where exterior work needs a certificate of appropriateness under section 35-608 of the Unified Development Code. Check the City's landmark layer for the address before planning a new porch or windows.

The price is low, and the homestead exemption does most of the work. Zillow's figure for ZIP code 78210, where 97% of the residents live and which holds about three times as many people, was $162,711 in August 2026, down 2.8% on the year, against a Bexar County median sale of $280,999. The address pays seven units, with San Antonio ISD, at 2.440474 per $100 for 2025. San Antonio ISD takes $145,000 off a homestead before its rate applies, so at the 78210 figure its line falls to about $205 and the whole bill to about $1,923 a year; without the exemption, as a landlord, the same house owes $3,971. The method is on the San Antonio page.

The flood map is clear, the streets are not always. FEMA's effective map puts none of the area in the 1% or 0.2% annual chance zones, and the land drains to the San Antonio River. Flash floods still close low-water crossings outside any mapped zone; Bexar County runs 150 warning sites that sense rising water on roads, and the City's flood insurance rating takes 10% off a policy outside the mapped zones. VIA's Route 20 runs down South New Braunfels Avenue about every 15 minutes at midday, to downtown one way and Brooks the other, with 19 stops inside the line; the nearest Prímo stop is about 3.9 km away. Groceries are at the H-E-B Plus! at McCreless Market, just south across Fair Avenue.