At the top for rooftops

San Antonio suburb raises the roof with one nation's biggest housing booms

New Braunfels houses on the Guadalupe River

New Braunfels is one of the cities in Comal County that's experienced tremendous housing growth.

Photo by dszc/Getty Images

If you live in or have driven through Comal County, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. You’ve seen thousands of new residential rooftops pop up in the past decade.

In fact, Comal County ranks as No. 3 among primary U.S. metro counties with the most growth in new housing units (48.5 percent) from 2010 to 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released November 2. Among those housing units are single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and apartments.

The number of housing units in Comal County rose by 22,831 from 2010 to 2020, the Census Bureau says.

Proving that everything is bigger in Texas, four other Lone Star counties make the top 10 on that list:

First-ranked Hays County, part of the Austin metro area — 57.4 percent (34,117 new housing units).
Fifth-ranked Williamson County, part of the Austin metro area — 46 percent (74,907 new housing units).
Seventh-ranked Fort Bend County, part of the Houston metro area — 41 percent (80,880 new housing units).
10th-ranked Rockwall County, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area — 36.8 percent (10,280 new housing units).

The San Antonio metro area also claims one spot on the bureau’s list of the 10 “outlying” metro counties with the most growth in housing units from 2010 to 2020. The bureau defines outlying counties as those outside a region’s “urban center.”

Kendall County, ranked fifth on that list, saw the number of housing units go up by 30.4 percent from 2010 to 2020 with the addition of 4,275 units.

Four other Texas counties appear on the same list for “outlying” counties:

No. 1 Denton County, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area — 36 percent (92,136 new housing units).
No. 2 Montgomery County, part of the Houston metro area — 34.2 percent (60,842 new housing units).
No. 3 Kaufman County, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area — 33.7 percent (12,906 new units).
No. 8 Bastrop County, part of the Austin metro area — 25.1 percent (7,367 new housing units).

“The number of occupied housing units grows when new housing is built or previously vacant homes become occupied. It decreases when housing units become vacant, are demolished or are converted into other uses,” the Census Bureau explains.

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bang for your buck

San Antonio ZIP code is 4th most affordable place for renters in U.S.

Photo by Florian Schmid on Unsplash

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Trying to afford buying a home in San Antonio is difficult enough with current mortgage rates, and doubly so if you're already paying high rent on an apartment or a house. But there are six San Antonio ZIP codes where renters can get the most bang for their buck, according to a new study by financial services company CashNetUSA.

To find the most affordable ZIP codes for renters in the U.S., analysts compared median household incomes by ZIP code to the average annual rent costs in those areas using the Zillow Observed Rent Index. ZIP codes where the average annual rental constituted the lowest percentage of median household income were considered the "most affordable."

San Antonio's 78248 ZIP code specifically stood out as the No. 4 most affordable in the country, and the No. 1 most affordable in Texas. This area encompasses the north San Antonio neighborhoods of Inwood, Forests at Inwood, Oakwood, The Park at Deerfield, Canyon Creek Bluffs, Canyon Creek Village, Blanco Village, Deerfield, Cadillac Drive, and Churchill Estates.

According to the study's findings, the average monthly cost of a rental in 78248 comes out to $1,259.17, and the median annual income of a household in the area is $122,986. Analysts then calculated that the annual rent of a home in this ZIP code only takes up 12.29 percent of a household's median income, which is the fourth-lowest in the nation.

CashNetUSA found the No. 1 most affordable ZIP code for renters nationwide is 66224 in Leawood, Kansas, where annual rent only takes a 10.57 percent cut out of a household's median annual income.

Elsewhere in Texas, two Houston-area ZIP codes – 77401 and 77094 – ranked No. 9 and No. 12 nationally, while Allen's 75013 ZIP code fell two spots behind to claim the No. 14 spot.

The most affordable San Antonio-area ZIP codes for renters
CashNetUSA further unveiled the five most affordable ZIP codes across major U.S. cities, including in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston.

Following 78248 (which took the No. 1 spot citywide) is 78261 (No. 2), which spans east of Highway 281, across Smithson Valley Road. Rent costs in this ZIP code averaged out to $1,698 per month, the report found.

Landing in the No. 3 spot is 78258, which includes Rogers Ranch, The Vineyard, Stone Oak, Summit, Hidden Canyon, and Big Springs neighborhoods. The report said average rent in the area comes out to $1,507 per month, which takes up 17.54 percent of a household's median annual income.

The remaining top two most affordable ZIP codes for San Antonio renters are located in 78259 (Encino Park, Encino Ranch, Cavalo Creek Estates, Northwood Hills, Summit at Bulverde Creek, Roseheart, Redland Woods) and 78260 in Timberwood Park, which is about 25 miles north of downtown San Antonio.

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