in this economy?

This is the salary you need to live comfortably in San Antonio in 2026

Single San Antonians need to make a little more than $82,000 to live comfortably in the city, the report found.

A new report analyzing how much it costs to live "in sustainable comfort" in the biggest U.S. cities has found San Antonio residents have the lowest salary requirement to live a comfortable life in 2026, and that figure is about $3,500 lower than it was last year.

SmartAsset's annual report found single adult residents in San Antonio need to make $83,242 a year to qualify as "financially stable." Last year, single San Antonians needed to make $86,694 to live comfortably in the city.

Families with two working parents and two children need to make a household income of $192,608 to have a financially stable life in San Antonio, the report found. That's $6,573 lower than what families needed to make last year.

To determine the rankings, SmartAsset's analysts examined 100 of the largest U.S. cities and used the latest cost of living data – such as the costs for housing, food, transportation, and income taxes where applicable – from the MIT Living Wage Calculator for childless individuals and for two working adults with two children.

For the purpose of the study, the 50/30/20 budgeting strategy was used to determine "comfortable lifestyle" costs for both individuals and families: 50 percent of income to cover needs and living expenses, 30 percent for "wants," and 20 percent for savings or paying down debt.

Here's a breakdown of a San Antonio resident's comfortable lifestyle based on SmartAsset's findings:

$41,621 dedicated to needs and living expenses
$24,973 dedicated to wants
$16,648 dedicated to savings or debt repayment

This is SmartAsset's interpretation of a comfortable lifestyle for families of four:

$96,304 dedicated to needs and living expenses
$57,782 dedicated to wants
$38,522 dedicated to savings or debt repayment

SmartAsset said single individuals and families should compare the fluctuating local cost of living and their long-term goals to fully "understand the context" of their respective household incomes. But it's worth pointing out that a financially stable life in San Antonio isn't quite attainable for many residents: The city had a median household income of $66,176 in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Elsewhere in Texas, the report found that families in the Dallas-Fort Worth of suburbs Frisco and McKinney "are closest to a comfortable salary."

"In Frisco, [Texas], the median household earns $145,444 – substantially higher than the national median of $83,730," the report's author wrote. "This figure also accounts for 63.1 percent of the $230,464 income a family of four in Frisco needs to live comfortably. In McKinney, TX, the $124,177 median household income accounts for 53.9 percent of the $230,464 needed."

The two suburbs also tied with Plano for the 29th highest salary needed nationally to live comfortably in 2026, and the No. 1 highest salary requirements in Texas. Single adults living in these cities need to make $109,242 a year to live a financially stable life this year.

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RESTORING THE ALAMO

The Alamo discovers bronze cannonball used in famed San Antonio battle

Photo by Daniel Schwen/ CC BY-SA 4.0

The Alamo has unearthed a cannonball likely used in the original battle.

Most tourists don't realize it, but in addition to being one of the most-visited sites in the United States, the Alamo is also an active archeological site. And during its newest excavation, it unearthed a doozy — a fully-intact cannonball that can be traced back to San Antonio’s most famous battle.

The Alamo first broke the news on Stories Bigger Than Texas: The Alamo Podcast. The artillery shell was discovered on March 5, a day before the 190th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo.

"I have chills now, just thinking about it," the Alamo's Director of Archaeology, Dr. Tiffany Lindley, told the podcast hosts. "March 5th is when we pulled it out of the ground. I don't think words can express the feelings that we all felt."

Alamo cannonball The cannonball is four pounds and made of solid bronze.Photo courtesy of the Alamo Trust

The four-pound, solid bronze cannonball was discovered approximately three feet below ground outside the Alamo Church. The dig’s layers of soil settled in a clearly visible pattern, allowing the archeologists to date the object with near certainty.“

"We can’t say with 100% certainty that it came from the Mexican Army, but I would say 99% because largely the Mexican Army is using bronze cannonballs and largely the Texans are using iron cannonballs," said Alamo's Senior Researcher and Historian Kolby Lanham. "Doesn’t mean they didn’t capture each other’s stuff and use it, but I would say with a fair amount of certainty that this is a Mexican Army cannonball and it was likely fired at the Battle of the Alamo — or it could have been during the 12-day siege.”

The cannonball isn’t the only Alamo artifact that was recently discovered. In January, the trust celebrated the return of one of the 1836 cannons. The weapon was found by a descendant of Samuel Maverick’s family, who said it was used as the base of a birdbath.

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