Cost of Living in San Antonio

I lived in San Antonio for most of my life. I'm 33 years old currently and I can say from the years of when I was a kid till now the cost of living has gone up substantially. But I mean a lot of that's attributed to the last few years which has pretty much hit everywhere just like here. In all fairness if you shop around for an affordable apartment under $950 a month Aunt shop at HEB instead of whole foods you can save a little money there. Utilities for a one bedroom 800 square foot apartment is typically around $70 to $120 for electricity most apartments include the water bill with the rent and the other stuff that comes with it gets added on too. So yeah there's that. I bought a Honda Accord in 2021 for $9,000. After tax title license it was closer to $11,500. And my payments are about $264 a month for that car. I have another car but it's a truck and I paid about $15,300 after tax title license for that one And my payments for that are about $448. That's a bit excessive and honestly it's not a smart move to really do that, but for me it made sense because I needed it for being able to move most of my stuff to a new place whenever I want to move to a new apartment and also bring and take things that I may want to have at the house? Or maybe sell something that I buy from a thrift place.

Gas per gallon ranges from$2.67 to $3.10 these days.

Milk from oak farms can be upwards of $6 a gallon. But if you get the Hill country Fair brand then you can get it for half that. It's all about researching before you start buying a car or getting a place or really doing anything. It can make the difference between having $1,800 in bills A month or $2,900 A month in bills. I mean it's a drastic difference, But the way that things are you can have two identical apartments, same quality In the same area and they would vary drastically by almost $500. So in that respect it's actually kind of crazy. When you look at how much of a difference you'll see with different products just because of the brand names. And, there's really no reason other than the company that owns the other apartments or products that they sell are based outside of Texas and they sell theirs for a markup for the same thing.

Side note A real problem that we're starting to see is that companies and llc's based in New York and California are buying up apartments and neighborhoods. And turning around and jacking up the rent almost two times what it was before with minimal renovations. It's not as prevalent as other places like Las Vegas, but it's still enough to feel disgusted by it because these people and companies have never lived in Texas and yet they are buying our state's property and trying to make a buck off of residents. Who've lived here their entire lives for generations.
It's almost like what rich people did to Hawaii in a sense. Once upon a Time, the only people who lived in Hawaii were native Hawaiians and now everybody's got a hand in their Island 's real estate. But anyways that's another argument. Sorry for the derailing of the topic.

Anywho, another issue that we have is that wages have basically stayed the same for the past 20 years. There hasn't been an increase or change in the rate of pay for most positions. And I'm not just talking about entry level positions. I mean like even mid-level and Senior level positions in companies like construction engineering biomechanical infrastructure, medical, etc. The wages Even 15 years ago have only gone up by less than 10% and inflation has gone up way more than that. So now you have teachers that are making $40,000 a year gross having 5 to 10 years experience in the field and that's basically nothing because that's not even $20 an hour, especially when Holmes in San Antonio are selling anywhere between $100,000 and $400,000 easily. Even if you were to buy a condo that's still in the range of 95,000 to 190, 000 for a modest condominium /apartment. Now I'm not a mathematician but those numbers don't add up a teacher that's worked 10 years of their career is still making $40 to $45,000 a year in a city where homes are more than two times that for the worst shape and areas of the city. If you want a decent home and an okay side of town you're looking closer to $250,000. Joe, take that how you will and I mean I guess if you're working in a different field besides education, then your wage will be a little bit higher, but it's not really consistent with the cost of a new home here. For example, I've been in HVAC for about 2 and 1/2 years now after I graduated from my HVAC school and I just became a building engineer. My starting wage is just about $52,000 including a standard yearly bonus of 5% of your total salary, but excluding other bonuses and stock options because those always change with the market and how well it company is doing in that year. now. Granted I don't have any experience as a building engineer, but I have plenty of experience as an HVAC technician and I also know that the average wage for a technician in the country is supposed to be about $60,000 to $75,000 per year for the experience that I have. And I know it sounds like I'm complaining but there's a point to this. A lot of jobs that post stating that they're willing to pay a fair wage and even post their numbers. Boasting $75,000 to $100,000 a year depending on what part of the country you're at sounds like a great thing. But then when you call or put in an application and you interview they do a bait and switch and change the salary on you last minute. So instead of a job that they are offering for $75,000 well now it's going for $50,000 (because they made a mistake. Conveniently). And the reason is budget cuts. Or some other ambiguous reason?.

I guess my point to all that is a lot of companies are desperate to find workers but not willing to pay the fair wages for the market. Even people who have Masters and so many certifications. I'm not sure why this is prevalent in every field but I guess I'm going off tangent here. Sorry

But yeah, San Antonio is an okay place to make a living. If you're fairly educated and have a couple years of experience in your field, then you'll be okay. Average wages are between $3,500 a month and $4,700 a month gross depending on your field. With that kind of education and experience and I guess it's not bad considering other States in the US.

But best advice I can give is do your research and find out about the jobs you're applying to before you move here and attempt to look for a job.

Yolanda Gutierrez - - - Your comments were spot on! I wonder if Enchanted Starlight did ANY research before relocating to Texas. From their post, it does not sound like it.

I moved to Texas from Hawaii in 2018, after having lived there since 1986. The infrastructure is quite a bit better in Texas, and the cost of living is about half (overall) of what is was in Honolulu when I left. As I type this, the median cost of a home in HNL is $1,000,000.00 USD. Just wait until you go to the grocery (Safeway, Foodland, Times) in Honolulu and pay over $6.50 for a gallon of fresh milk. You will love it . . .

Texas is a very culturally rich and vibrant state! The cost of living in one of the major cities here is quite reasonable compared to many other cities within the United States.

Yes, Texas does have some problems - - - but what place on earth does not? Like anything else, one should ALWAYS research the subject carefully before making a decision.

Enchanted Starlight's comments are NOTHING but sour grapes, and differ so far from my experience living in Texas as to be unrecognizable.

Genius's comment is the reason why people don't like Trump supporters.