Neighborhoods near Fort Sam Houston and Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas - part 1

Lots of people are going to be relocating to Fort Sam Houston and Brooke Army Medical Center (now known as San Antonio Military Medical Center) over the next few months as the two facilities expand under BRAC. If you're one of them and you're not familiar with San Antonio, you may be wondering where to look for a home. Here is an overview of neighborhoods within easy commuting distance of Fort Sam and BAMC. Details on other neighborhoods will follow in upcoming posts.

Alamo Heights is less than a mile, in places, from Fort Sam. It is the tree-filled Beverly Hills of San Antonio, with sales prices ranging from $200,000 for a tiny 2-bedroom cottage that may need rehabbing or may be located on one of the busy main streets through the neighborhood. You will need to budget $350,000 up to over a million for a larger home, an updated cottage, or an elegant mansion on a large lot. All of these are available in Alamo Heights. Most homes in the community were built in the 1920s through the 1940s, and the styles range from Prairie to mock-Tudor to Mediterranean. Some of the homes have been torn down and replaced with McMansions, but the voluntary neighborhood association has put the brakes on that. The city of Alamo Heights has a great vibe and is a wonderful place to visit for shopping and dining, too.

The Alamo Heights school district is the most prestigious one in San Antonio. If you want the Alamo Heights schools, but not the real estate prices, you might consider Terrell Heights. It is a smaller, slightly newer neighborhood to the north and east of Alamo Heights. The topography is flatter than in Alamo Heights and the streets are grid-shaped for the most part. Homes average around 1,600 square feet and are more standardized (no mansions here). They range from $170,000 for fixer-uppers to over $300,000 for remodeled homes, averaging in the low $200,000s. They are mostly one-story homes built on pier-and-beam foundations with asbestos or wood siding. If they have garages, then tend to be detached. Terrell Heights has its own buzz, like Alamo Heights.

Two other neighborhoods bordering Alamo Heights and Terrell Heights, and located 5 to 10 minutes from Fort Sam are Northwood and Northridge Park. These are true suburbs that were built in the 1940s and 1950s as San Antonio grew to the north. The homes tend to be on larger lots than in Terrell Heights, and there is a mixture of pier-and-beam and slab foundations as well as much more brick and stone. They are mostly one-story ramblers with attached garages, but there are some estate homes, too, in the $600,000s and up. These neighborhoods encompass both Alamo Heights and North East school districts, and prices run from $185,000 for small or yet-to-be-updated 3-bedroom homes to the high $400,000s for larger and/or remodeled homes. Northridge prices are in the higher range because more of them are in Alamo Heights school district than Northwood farther to the north and east.

I'll post information about more neighborhoods soon, or if you can't wait, just contact me for details. You might also want to check out my other posts about Fort Sam and BAMC.