Best PlacesHighland Hills, San Antonio, TX Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Highland Hills, San Antonio, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

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Highland Hills, San Antonio ranks 5,185th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.

#5,185
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in Highland Hills, San Antonio

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Highland Hills, San Antonio area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Highland Hills, San Antonio's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Affordable childcare
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Highland Hills, San Antonio with other neighborhoods.

Where Highland Hills, San Antonio ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$783 a month, better than 90% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 88% of neighborhoods
  • Cell coverageBetter than 85% of neighborhoods
  • Nice weatherabout 168 pleasant days a year, better than 82% of neighborhoods

Where Highland Hills, San Antonio ranks low

  • Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of neighborhoods
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of neighborhoods
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 10% of neighborhoods
  • School gradeD−, better than only 10% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Highland Hills, San Antonio

A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Highland Hills, San Antonio home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,467, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$42,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$971
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $147,415 home
Median rent
$1,194
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$752
Property tax$170
Homeowners insurance$49

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Highland Hills, San Antonio's effective rate of 1.39%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Highland Hills, San Antonio

Highland Hills, San Antonio runs younger than the country.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6419%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Highland Hills, San Antonio.


Who works in Highland Hills, San Antonio, and how

Work in Highland Hills, San Antonio centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+8.3%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade16%
Health care & social12%
Construction10%
Manufacturing10%
Hospitality & food9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 85%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in Highland Hills, San Antonio

Highland Hills, San Antonio has more parkland per resident than 66% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Highland Hills, San Antonio and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
132
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 48.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 64% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
5
about 1.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 60% of neighborhoods
Parkland
61 acres
about 2.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 66% of neighborhoods
Open past 10pm
~36
food and drink venues open late, about 13.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 53% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Highland Hills, San Antonio, month by month

Highland Hills, San Antonio sees roughly 168 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 99 degrees. January highs sit near 68, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January68°54°43°
April85°72°61°
July99°86°76°
October87°74°62°

Flying in and out of Highland Hills, San Antonio

San Antonio International sits about 12 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.3 million passengers in 2025, with 87 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SAT
San Antonio International, about 12 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
43rd-busiest in the US, 87 nonstop destinations
Average drive
17 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Highland Hills, San Antonio

Schools across Highland Hills, San Antonio average a D−, better than 10% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Highland Hills, San Antonio school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Highland Hills, San Antonio measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Highland Hills, San Antonio against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Who Highland Hills, San Antonio suits

Families

Schools land around the 10th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 82% of neighborhoods and it is quieter than 57%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Highland Hills, San Antonio

Is Highland Hills, San Antonio a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Highland Hills, San Antonio ranks 5,185th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state finances, and low taxes, and lowest on summer heat and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Highland Hills, San Antonio expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $147,415. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $48,467 median income, cost of living beats 21% of neighborhoods.

Is Highland Hills, San Antonio safe?

Highland Hills, San Antonio is safer than 40% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $656 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Highland Hills, San Antonio?

July highs average about 99 degrees, and January highs near 68 with lows near 43. That works out to about 168 pleasant days a year, more than 82% of neighborhoods.

Is Highland Hills, San Antonio good for families?

Schools beat 10% of neighborhoods, crime safety beats 40%, and childcare runs $783 a month.


Compare Highland Hills, San Antonio with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Highland Hills, San Antonio. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Highland Hills, San Antonio represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Highland Hills, San Antonio detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Highland Hills, San Antonio: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Highland Hills, San Antonio: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Highland Hills, San Antonio: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Highland Hills, San Antonio: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Highland Hills, San Antonio detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.