San Antonio mortgage files turn on property tax more than any other single factor: Bexar County rates are high, new construction is often first billed on the lot alone so the escrow set at closing can run thousands below the real number, and MUD or PID districts add their own rate in the growth corridors. VA is the primary loan around Joint Base San Antonio; a 100% disabled rating removes property tax entirely; Texas Vet and TSAHC assistance change cash to close; and a large share of my files here are worked entirely in Spanish.
Who I help here
- JBSA families at Randolph, Lackland and Fort Sam Houston: VA purchase and VA new construction, closings set to report dates, BAH qualifying, and the disability-rating math that can take several hundred dollars a month off a payment. VA loans.
- New-construction buyers in the northwest corridor and along I-35, where I review every builder incentive against agency concession rules and quote off the finished assessed value. Conventional · FHA.
- First-time buyers using TSAHC, TDHCA or the City of San Antonio program. Texas assistance.
- Self-employed owners and contractors on bank-statement and 1099 programs. Bank statement.
- Investors buying in Converse, Universal City and the South Side on DSCR loans, with Bexar taxes in the ratio from day one. DSCR.
- Spanish-speaking families, including ITIN taxpayers and Mexican nationals buying investment property, with the whole process in Spanish. ITIN · Foreign national · Esta página en español.
Local approval issues
- The new-construction tax trap. The first bill is often assessed on the lot alone, so the escrow set at closing can be thousands below the real number and the payment jumps in year two. I quote new builds off the finished assessed value and the full MUD or PID rate, which is why my payment estimate sometimes looks higher than the builder's and turns out to be the accurate one.
- Homestead exemption. $140,000 off the school-district taxable value for 2026, plus $60,000 at 65 or disabled. You file with the Bexar County Appraisal District after closing; the form goes in your packet.
- 10% appraisal cap. Tax Code §23.23 limits a homestead's taxable-value increase to 10% a year, which protects you after that first-year jump on a new build.
- MUDs and PIDs. Common in Alamo Ranch, Cibolo, Schertz and the I-35 corridor. Disclosed in the contract; in the payment before qualifying.
- Disabled veterans. A 100% service-connected rating exempts the homestead from property tax under §11.131. It changes both qualification and which house.
- Texas Vet. The Veterans Land Board program, with a rate discount at a 30%-plus rating, gets priced against straight VA on every eligible file.
- Cash-out later. Texas 50(a)(6) rules: 80% LTV cap, 2% fee cap, 12-day cooling-off. Worth knowing before you buy if you plan to tap equity.
Market snapshot
Current San Antonio figures, monthly from Redfin with Bexar and surrounding county inventory from Realtor.com via FRED, are on the Market Intelligence local lookup, timestamped and sourced. Local market notes post to the same page as SABOR and TPR report them.
Communities I lend in
Common questions
Why is your payment estimate on a new build higher than the builder's?
Because it uses the finished home's assessed value and the full district tax rate instead of the lot's first-year bill. The builder's number is usually right for year one and wrong for every year after.
Can the whole process be in Spanish?
Yes: intake, document explanations, a Spanish walk-through of the Closing Disclosure. The closing documents themselves are in English, explained beforehand.
Do you work with JBSA PCS timelines?
Every week. The closing gets set to the report date, the COE is pulled the day we talk, and BAH at the new station is what we qualify on.
Sources: Texas Comptroller, exemptions · Bexar County Appraisal District · Tax Code §23.23 · Texas Veterans Land Board · TSAHC · City of San Antonio. Verified September 2026.
