San Antonio, Texas SperlingViews

The average cost of the house approximately $100,000.00 is very misleading. The low end of the housing is so low and in such a bad neigborhood you would not consider buying. Moving from MN we discovered to live safely when you rent the rents are much higher to be in a decent apartment and decent neighborhood. To buy a house may seem cheaper but by the time you add on the property taxes ( which cost more then double the cost in MN) it is more expensive. Then if you are in a nice neighborhood chances are it is a gated community you also pay association dues. If you are retired you will get the school portion of the taxes frozen at age 65 but it is still more then double from what we paid in MN and we had a house costing 60,000.00 less then our MN home and less square footage. We do have a nice house but so was our MN home. The public transportation might as well be non existant unless you are living within the 410 loop in San Antonio. Utilities are higher such as water and cooling and heat in San Antonio. There isn't state income tax but when you are retired your income is less so you are taxed less but in Texas the property tax doesn't go down so retirees still pay the high property tax unless you rent but then it is built into the rent. My husband was sure we could live cheaper here but it is actually costing us more and we only have one vehicle now. Wages down here are just awful and unions are rare. The illegal problem is keeping wages low because corporations as does our president see it as good. If we didn't have all the illegals the corporations would have to pay higher wages to have the same work done and there would be little if any unemployment because everyone would be working for better wages and possibly good benefits which corp get out of paying to the average citizen. The savings from hiring illegals is not passed on in grocery stores but if it was it would be worth paying more without all the other headaches and high cost the illegals cost us such as medical, welfare for the anchor children, insurance for cars which many don't have, crime, and the jobs they cost US citizens who would work for a DECENT wage. We don't need the illegals. Texas is not a cheap place to live.

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re: San Antonio-not cheap and lots of illegals - 6 - 2/9/2008
Well if it is about blaming you should blame the owners of those company's that hire them, however it seems that everything that is going wrong is now being blamed on the "ilegals" If you are really worried about the U.S. economy next time you go shoping make sure you buy stuff made in the U.S. that is If you can afford it, so you see you are just as guilty of the bad economy. And as for getting rid of the "ilegals" I don't know about you but I know I can not afford to pay $10.00 for a lb. of tomatoes which is what will happen because I am sure nobody would work those fields like the "ilegals" do for such little $$$ but that we don't SEE.

re: San Antonio-not cheap and lots of illegals - 6 - 8/28/2009
Problem is that employers will hire illegals. Simple as that. Go after the employers and the illegals will stop coming here. Also it isn't right to say it's better to have illegals making such small wages just to make your tomatoes cheap. You have to do one or the other. Number one illegal means against the law, therefore if we have to pay more we pay more. You can't say get rid of the illegals and not be willing to make up the difference.

San Antonio Climate - 12/30/2007

The climate for San Antonio is modified subtropical climate. It is located on the edge of the Gulf Coastal Plains. Because of this, the weather is good. The weather in San Antonio is moderate. The[read more...]

Don't believe the hype - 12/26/2007

I graduated with my B.S. in radio/tv/film from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001. Due to circumstances I was forced to move to San Antonio. I've been here since that time. When I first[read more...]

Real life in San Antonio, TX - 11/4/2007

I've lived in San Antonio my whole life, but I have visited other cities and states. San Antonio sucks in many many ways. First of all, the crime rate is high and if you live here you can expect to[read more...]

Spring Farms Subdivision - 10/30/2007

The area in which we live is in Northeast San Antonio, not a sub, but part of San Antonio. We have been here for about 13 years. We have never considered moving away from the area to another part[read more...]

San Antonio is a great place to live. - 10/20/2007

One of the fastest growing cities in America.San Antonio is a friendly city despite having 2 million people.It has a great art scene,great musuems and cultural events.Always someting to do.Great[read more...]

SA Quality of Life - 9/16/2007

hot humid, lots to do, great food, go to[read more...]

I recently went... - 8/3/2007

I recently went to san antonio and it was great . Lots of things to do! It was a very clean except for the new freeways theyre building. I also suggest that if youre going there to visit and stay at[read more...]

Jobs in San Antonio - 7/19/2007

An article on worse places to live in the US for college graduates seeking mid-level jobs cited San Antonio as the absolute worst city in the US for obtaining a mid-level position[read more...]

a great place to live - 7/5/2007

Eight months of wonderful weather, NBA Champion basketball team, two great art museums, three big amusement parks, first class zoo, large botanical garden, world's finest riverwalk, rich Hispanic[read more...]

San Antonio Cost of Living - 6/25/2007

I moved from San Diego, CA to Texas 13 years ago and LOVE San Antonio. I live in Corpus Christi (due to job restrictions) but own property in SA and go up to visit every chance I get, since its only[read more...]

Hot in the South - 6/21/2007

Hot and humid in the summers... 98 degrees with 95%[read more...]

San Antonio-not cheap and lots of illegals - 6/18/2007

The average cost of the house approximately $100,000.00 is very misleading. The low end of the housing is so low and in such a bad neigborhood you would not consider buying. Moving from MN we[read more...]

San Antonio - 6/18/2007

The average cost of the house approximately $100,000.00 is very misleading. The low end of the housing is so low and in such a bad neigborhood you would not consider buying. Moving from MN we[read more...]

San Antonio - 6/16/2007

San Antonio has a very low cost of living. There are actually four seasons here; Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, &[read more...]

North Central San Antonio transportation issues - 6/16/2007

Transportation issues abound here in the north central part of San Antonio. There are no grocery stores without crossing major highways in any direction. Neighborhood convenience stores are also[read more...]

The only place you want to live is Alamo Heights - 6/15/2007

Unlike the almost the entirity of San Antonio, Alamo Heights has good schools (and police, and fire dept.); why? - because Alamo Heights was started by people smart enough to not want anything to do[read more...]

San Antonio - 6/15/2007

Housing and food are cheap. However the city is a patchwork of a very few great neighborhoods with a very few nice with a whole bunch of depressed or bad & very bad. You don't necessarily know[read more...]

Taxes are too HIGH, infrastructure STRAINED, poor - 6/9/2007

San Antonio needs to get with it! Energy policy favors fossil fuels, property taxes are out of control considering the public schools are so poor compared to thenational average performance...city[read more...]

A nice place to visit, but.... - 6/6/2007

I made the mistake of moving to San Antonio, seduced by its warm weather, River Walk, and other interesting tourist spots. Was that ever a mistake! Between the good-ole-boy Texans, backward[read more...]

Overall Rating - 5/24/2007

We lived in San Antonio from 2001 to 2005. I now find myself in Northern Virginia (D.C. - military). Man, do I miss San Antonio!! I've read the negative comments regarding San Antonio. Forget it,[read more...]