Like all of Texas, San Antonio does it up big. Home of the famous Alamo and the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs, the city offers a rich blend of Mexican-American cultures, as well as a range of warm weather lifestyles for active young adults to the more mature retirees. Also San Antonio currently enjoys a much more stable real estate market then most other parts of the country. The state may not have the huge appreciation that markets on the east and west coast experience, but on the other hand they have not seen the 20% or larger drops in the past year as these other markets have.

Due to growth in the San Antonio job market, which is currently one of the strongest in the country, the local economy remains stable. The influx of businesses and industries like Toyota's Tundra Truck Plant, Microsoft, Rackspace and the National Security Agency's Satellite Center, and the construction of TPC San Antonio Golf Resort have all helped to created an abundance of high paying jobs. Also, this past January, construction began at Fort Sam Houston military installation on a two billion dollar project that is expected to add approximately 10,000-12,000 jobs over the next four years.

San Antonio is certainly proving to be a hidden gem in the real estate market, in that it is actually thriving and continues to grow while other sectors of the nation lag. But there are a number of other factors that make San Antonio stand out. For instance, the city has a low risk of damage from tornadoes and hurricanes when compared to the rest of the state. Yet it is close enough to the coast that within a few hours you can be soaking up some sun on the beaches in Corpus Christi. Add to this the median home cost of $150,800 (2007) and San Antonio is a strong contender for an affordable, fun place to live.

A number of new communities are cropping up on the outskirts of San Antonio. For example, just twenty minutes from downtown , Cross Mountain offers ranch-like, two acre subdivisions for quite, wide-open country living and fantastic views of the surrounding hills. Prices range from $250,000 to $875,000. Some slightly older homes can be found at Oak Hollow Estates with prices ranging from $130,000 to $225,000 as well as Colonies North, a well established community of older homes, which has always maintained its value. The price range of these homes is generally about $80,000 to $145,000, and sales continue to remain strong.

There is certainly no shortage of affordable homes available in the San Antonio area and with the diverse number of communities in and around the city, there are some great options available to real estate buyers and sellers alike. Secure locations, quality school districts, lots of great amenities and better community recreational facilities with lots of green spaces, all combine to make San Antonio one of the best real estate markets for buying or selling a home.