San Antonio's new homes are concentrated in three counties. In 2025, Bexar County issued permits for 4,589 new single-family homes, Comal County for 1,726 and Guadalupe County for 1,546, according to the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey.
The Census Bureau's San Antonio-New Braunfels metro covers eight counties: Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson. Kyle and Buda, which you will see advertised with this area, are in Hays County and belong to the Austin metro.
The feature that sets San Antonio apart for new-home buyers is the kind of special district that comes with many new subdivisions.
Register before your first visit
Register a buyer's agent before you walk into a model home or call a sales office. Most builders only pay an outside agent who was registered before that first contact, so an unregistered visit usually leaves the builder's own staff as the only agents on the sale.
Registering with EXL Realty Group is free and takes a couple of minutes. We keep a flat 0.5% fee and return a flat 2.5% of the purchase price as an estimated closing credit. On a $400,000 home that is about $10,000 at closing, subject to lender approval and the commission the builder pays.
Special Improvement Districts: the San Antonio version of a PID
In the Houston area, new subdivisions often come with a Municipal Utility District. Around San Antonio, MUDs are rare. Instead, the City of San Antonio says the most common special district requested in the area just outside its limits is a Chapter 382 Public Improvement District, also called a Special Improvement District. The county creates it, with the city's consent, to pay for infrastructure through an assessment on each lot.
These districts can be large. The city's table lists 31 consent actions between January 2005 and January 2025, some of them expansions or amendments, and many are sized for more than 1,000 single-family lots. Stone Garden is planned for 2,202 lots and Northlake for 2,067.
An assessment is not the same as a property tax. Officials in other Texas counties point out that a PID assessment is not an ad valorem tax, so exemptions such as the 100% disabled veteran exemption do not apply to it. Ask the county how it treats the district in the community you are considering.
Read the notice before you sign
Because these are Chapter 382 districts, Texas Property Code section 5.014 applies. The seller must give you a written notice before you sign a binding contract. It says you are obligated to pay the assessment, that you may pay it off in full at any time, that yearly installments vary, and that nonpayment can lead to a lien and foreclosure. The notice is recorded at closing.
The statute also covers a late notice. It gives the buyer seven days after receiving it to end the contract, when the district's service plan was filed with the county clerk, and closing after receiving it gives up that right. Ask an attorney how this applies to your contract. Our guide to MUD, PID and HOA fees compares the different district types.
Look up the lot on a flood map
Texas requires a seller's disclosure with detailed flood questions on resale homes. It does not apply to a new home that has never been occupied (Texas Property Code section 5.008(e)(10)), so on new construction you do the research. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center has the official flood maps, and the Texas Water Development Board's Texas Flood Information Viewer is another public map to check. Check the specific lot, not just the subdivision. Our flood risk guide walks through the FEMA map.
Test the commute
I-35, I-10, Loop 410, Loop 1604 and US 281 all appear on TxDOT's 2025 list of the most congested roads in Texas, along with SH 151 and I-37. A community that looks close on a map can take much longer at rush hour, so drive the trip at the hour you would make it.
Check the school district by address
School district lines do not follow city limits, and a large metro like this one has many districts. Before you choose a lot, check the address with the Texas Education Agency's School District Locator.
Where to start
See the builders we work with on our San Antonio page, or search current builder inventory and see an estimated closing credit for any home. Before you sign, read our questions to ask a builder.