Rental / DSCR in San Antonio

Because every rent source in this metro is flat or negative as of mid-2026, and the apartment market is undercutting single-family rent. San Antonio has the highest apartment vacancy of any major U.S. multifamily market at 15.7%, against Austin at 14.0% and Houston at 12.7%, and 72% of properties are offering a concession such as a free first month. Asking rents fell for a fourth straight quarter to a five-year low, and Q1 2026 net absorption was negative 1,700 units. Average apartment rent was $1,264 in August 2026, down 2.65% year over year. On the house side, average residential rent across the SABOR MLS area was $1,864 in June 2026 across 4,642 active listings. Those are different property types and should never be blended, but they point the same way. We underwrite what the property collects, not what the listing asks. Run it yourself first with the DSCR calculator.

Near the bases, the housing allowance is not a comp. It is the market. JBSA supports 74,713 direct employees and 223,349 total jobs with $53.5 billion in economic output, and it runs an average daily student load of 23,867, so there is a continuously cycling trainee population on top of permanent end strength. The 2026 basic allowance for housing in the San Antonio military housing area pays an E-5 with dependents $1,869 a month and an O-3 with dependents $2,127. Note where the E-5 number sits: within $5 of the $1,864 average residential rent SABOR reported for June 2026. That allowance is paid monthly and is not taxed, which makes it a durable rent floor and a hard ceiling at the same time. Randolph AFB anchors the demand in Universal City, Schertz, Converse, and Cibolo. If your pro forma rent runs well above the local BAH tier, be able to say who is paying it.

Enough to decide the deal, and more than the seller's bill suggests. A City of San Antonio address carries a combined rate of roughly 2.22% to 2.54% per year depending on the school district, of which the non-school portion was 1.285274 per $100 of value for tax year 2025. Two Texas rules bite an investor. Non-homestead property gets neither the homestead exemption nor the 10% appraisal cap, which are homestead-only under Tax Code section 23.23. And the separate 20% circuit breaker on non-homestead property under section 23.231 requires a full calendar year of ownership, is stripped on sale, and expires December 31, 2026, so do not build a 2027 hold around it. The Bexar Appraisal District protest deadline is May 15 for the 2026 cycle. We size the loan on the go-forward assessed bill. Talk to your CPA about your own position.

On the base stack, yes. On the actual parcel, check the overlays first. Tax year 2025 city plus school stacks run 1.7517 per $100 in New Braunfels, 1.8645 in Boerne, 1.9191 in Schertz, 1.9267 in Seguin, and 1.9299 in Cibolo, against roughly 2.22% to 2.54% inside the city of San Antonio. Those suburban sums exclude special district overlays, and the overlays are large: Meyer Ranch MUD at 0.95, Comal WID 1A at 0.79, Guadalupe MUD 6 and 10 at 0.80, Park Place MUD at 1.20, Kendall WCID 3A at 1.10. A MUD parcel in a growth-corridor subdivision can end up above the city-of-San-Antonio total. Pull the parcel's full list of taxing units before you assume the suburb is the lower-cost carry.

Budget real money for hail, but San Antonio is one of the lower-cost large Texas markets. The Texas Department of Insurance puts the Bexar County average homeowners premium at $2,806 for 2025, up from $1,510 in 2019. That is about 20% below the $3,506 statewide average and well below Dallas at $4,363, Harris at $4,144, and Tarrant at $3,939. The increases are also decelerating: 18.6% in 2024, then 8.8% in 2025, with mid-2026 statewide rate filings roughly flat. Hail has been the number one Texas homeowners loss peril every year from 2016 through 2025 except 2021, and the 2016 San Antonio hailstorm alone ran about $1.36 billion insured. One thing you can take off the list: San Antonio is inland and outside TWIA territory, so there is no windstorm pool certificate and no TWIA assessment exposure. Get a bound quote on the subject property before you lock the ratio, because a few hundred dollars of annual premium moves a thin DSCR.

In San Antonio, often yes with the right permit type. In New Braunfels, usually no. Under San Antonio's Unified Development Code section 35-374.01, a Type 1 short-term rental, where the owner or operator occupies the unit or another unit on the same parcel, is permitted by right with no density cap. A Type 2 rental, not owner occupied, is capped at 12.5% of the units on a block face for single-family through quadraplex, at one unit for multifamily of 5 to 7 units, and at 12.5% of units for multifamily of 8 or more. Going over the cap takes a Board of Adjustment special exception. Permits ran $300 for Type 1 and $450 for Type 2 on a three-year term as of the 2024 amendments, and the city can revoke a permit for up to three years. New Braunfels is the trap: it prohibits short-term rentals in every residential zoning district, allowing them only in non-residential zones, with a special use permit outside C-4, C-4A, and C-4B. A New Braunfels short-term rental buy in a residential zone is not permittable, so confirm zoning before you build a nightly-income model. See the DSCR program terms for leverage and structure.

Plan on at least 20% of the purchase. Max leverage is up to 80% LTV, so on a $300,000 San Antonio rental that is up to $240,000 from us and $60,000 from you (300,000 x 80% = 240,000). Two local line items sit on top of that. The combined tax rate inside the city runs about 2.22% to 2.54% depending on the school district, and Bexar County averaged $2,806 for a homeowners policy in 2025. Both land in the coverage ratio, so thin equity and a soft rent do not survive together. Subject to underwriting.

Yes. We write DSCR from $100,000 to $3 million. That covers most of what trades in this metro, and it is the loan amount that has to clear the floor, not the purchase price. Terms run 30-year fixed or 5, 7 and 10 year ARM, so the structure is built for a hold rather than a quick exit. If your San Antonio purchase sits under the floor, send the address instead of assuming, because a different program may fit it better. Subject to underwriting.

It matters, and it is not the main test. DSCR starts at a 640 credit score, and the ratio does the heavy lifting from there. We underwrite DSCR from 0.75, which means the rent does not have to cover the whole payment for the file to work. That flexibility earns its keep in San Antonio, where average apartment rent was $1,264 in August 2026, down 2.65% year over year, and the metro carries the highest apartment vacancy of any major U.S. multifamily market. We qualify off what the property collects, not off your tax returns. Subject to underwriting.