San Antonio is the second-largest city in Texas, and the seventh-largest city in the United States with a population of approximately 1.33 million. The city’s subtropical climate results in hot summers and warm to cool winters, with only about a dozen nights reaching temperatures of below freezing per year.
San Antonio’s economy is driven by four primary sectors: financial services, government, health care, and tourism. In addition, the city is also home to a large military concentration, as the defense industry in San Antonio has over 89,000 employees and results in a $5.25 billion impact to the city’s economy. San Antonio is home to five Fortune 500 companies, Valero Energy Corp, Tesoro Petroleum Corp, USAA, Clear Channel Communications, and NuStar Energy.
Tourism is extremely prevalent in San Antonio, as the city hosts more than twenty million visitors each year. Some of the city’s tourist attractions include the River Walk, the Arneson River Theater, Aztec On The River, SeaWorld, as well as Texas’ top tourist destination, The Alamo. The yearly economic impact from tourism in San Antonio is estimated to be upwards of $10.7 billion.
The real estate market in San Antonio didn’t experience the same drastic increases in value observable in many other markets during the 2005-2007 timeframe. As a result, property values didn’t suffer the steep decline in recent years that many other markets had to endure. From 2000 to 2012, San Antonio’s median sales price has remained between $52,000 and $98,000, a range of just $46,000, thus demonstrating the stability of the area’s property values.