Alamo Heights, Texas
Planning for Alamo Heights, an independent city with San Antonio on every side.
Alamo Heights covers 2.1 square miles, incorporated in 1922, and its center sits four and a half miles north of downtown San Antonio, which surrounds it. Forty-five percent of its households earn $200,000 or more, against 7.3% citywide; the median home is worth about $779,400; and the typical house was built around 1950. The planning here is about a house that has appreciated for decades, a family that spans generations, and a tax bill assembled by seven taxing units.
The situation
Old houses, long tenures, and a school district shared by three cities
Alamo Heights became a municipality on June 20, 1922, after residents who had once asked San Antonio to annex them decided to govern themselves instead, and voters approved an independent school system the same year. Alamo Heights ISD now covers about 9.4 square miles and serves Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, Olmos Park and parts of north San Antonio. The three cities are separate municipalities with their own councils and tax rates: Terrell Hills incorporated in 1939 and Olmos Park in the 1940s. Together they hold roughly 14,700 residents, and in each roughly 45 to 48 percent of households earn $200,000 or more, with median home values between about $779,000 and $896,000.
The housing stock explains much of the planning. The median Alamo Heights house dates from 1950, against 1985 for San Antonio as a whole, and about three quarters of the city’s homes are owner-occupied. A house bought here in the 1980s or 1990s now carries a large unrealized gain, which raises questions of basis, community property and who inherits it. The owners often run family businesses, practice at the South Texas Medical Center, or work at USAA or Valero a short drive away, and their estates need to work for children and grandchildren, not only for the two people who built them.
Why it’s complex
Five Alamo Heights questions with local numbers attached
Three cities, one school district, three city rates
In 2025 the City of Alamo Heights levies $0.370147 per $100, Olmos Park $0.511411 and Terrell Hills $0.357994, and all three pay Alamo Heights ISD’s $0.9572. With the county-wide units added, an Alamo Heights home pays about $2.07 per $100 before exemptions, against about $2.27 for a San Antonio home in North East ISD: about $1,530 a year on a $779,400 house.
No city exemption, but a city freeze at 65
Alamo Heights offers no general or over-65 homestead exemption on its own levy, so the full value is taxed by the city. What it has adopted, since 2007, is a ceiling: once an owner turns 65, the city’s tax on that homestead is frozen at that year’s amount. The state’s $140,000 school exemption is worth about $1,340 a year at the district rate, and $1,914 once it rises to $200,000 at 65, with a matching freeze on the school levy.
A 1950 house with a 2026 value
A home held for thirty years in Alamo Heights can carry a gain well past the $500,000 that federal law lets a married couple exclude on a sale. Because Texas is a community-property state, both halves of a home bought during the marriage can take a new basis at the first spouse’s death, which often changes whether the survivor should sell, hold, or pass the house on.
The step-up in basisWealth meant to outlast its owners
Texas has no estate or inheritance tax and its constitution now bars one, but the federal exemption of $15 million per person in 2026 is a line some Alamo Heights estates approach once the house, the portfolio, retirement accounts and a business interest are added up. Inherited retirement accounts must generally be emptied within ten years, so which asset goes to which heir is a tax decision as well as a family one.
Estate planningFamily businesses four miles from downtown
Many Alamo Heights households own the company as well as the house. With no personal income tax, the Texas franchise tax is the state’s share: 0.75% of margin above $2.65 million of annual revenue for 2026 reports, 0.375% for retail and wholesale. Succession, the owner’s own retirement account and the value a buyer would actually pay are one conversation, held years before any sale.
Planning for business ownersSources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates for Alamo Heights, Olmos Park and Terrell Hills; Bexar Appraisal District, 2025 tax rates and exemptions; City of Alamo Heights, facts; Alamo Heights ISD, district information; Texas Comptroller, homestead exemptions; 26 U.S.C. §121; IRS, estate and gift tax; Texas Comptroller 2025 city and ISD rate reports.
Our approach
One plan for the house, the company and the next generation
We begin with an inventory of what the household owns, how each asset is titled and what it cost, because in Alamo Heights the house alone can hold decades of gain. Then we plan taxes and transfers across all of it. A worked example on a home at the city’s median value of $779,400: the $140,000 school exemption leaves $639,400 subject to school tax, about $6,120 a year at Alamo Heights ISD’s 2025 rate ($639,400 × $0.9572 / $100), falling to about $5,546 once the exemption reaches $200,000 at 65 ($579,400 × $0.9572 / $100). The city taxes the full value, about $2,885 at $0.370147 per $100 ($779,400 × $0.370147 / $100).
Map the basis and the title
Purchase price and improvements on the house, community or separate character of each asset, the gain in every taxable holding, and the beneficiary on every account.
Manage the tax bill as a whole
Gifts of appreciated stock rather than cash, losses harvested against gains, charitable giving from retirement accounts after 70½, and the over-65 filings with the appraisal district in the first eligible year.
Decide what goes to whom, and how
Which heir receives the house, the retirement accounts or the business, what a trust should hold, and how much to give during life, coordinated with your estate attorney so the plan is written down.
The work
What you’ll work through with us
- An asset-by-asset record of cost basis, title and community or separate property
- A sell, hold or keep-in-the-family analysis for a long-held Alamo Heights home
- Over-65 exemption and ceiling filings for the city, the school district and the county
- Estate exposure measured against the 2026 federal exemption
- Gifting, education accounts and trusts for children and grandchildren
- Business succession, franchise-tax and owner-retirement planning
- Charitable giving from appreciated holdings and retirement accounts
- Coordination with your estate attorney and CPA
Planning is led by Theo Halbardier, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®, the firm’s founder. We are fee-only: no commissions, no product sales. About Theo
Questions
Common questions from Alamo Heights households
Do you have an office in Alamo Heights?
We work with Alamo Heights, Olmos Park and Terrell Hills households by video and, by arrangement, in person. We do not maintain a public office location.
Does the City of Alamo Heights offer a homestead exemption?
Not a general one, and not an over-65 dollar amount either; the city levies its $0.370147 rate on the full value. Since 2007 it has frozen the city tax for owners 65 or older at the amount in the year they qualified. The school exemption ($140,000, and $200,000 at 65) and Bexar County’s 20% and $50,000 exemptions are separate and do apply, all on one bill collected by Bexar County.
Why is our bill different from a friend's in Olmos Park or Terrell Hills?
The city line. All three towns pay Alamo Heights ISD, Bexar County and the same county-wide districts, but each sets its own city rate: $0.370147 in Alamo Heights, $0.511411 in Olmos Park and $0.357994 in Terrell Hills for 2025. Olmos Park also grants a $10,000 over-65 exemption; Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills do not. Your appraisal notice lists every unit and every exemption applied.
We bought our house in the 1990s. What happens to the gain?
On a sale, a married couple can exclude up to $500,000 of gain on a main home owned and lived in for two of the past five years; on many Alamo Heights houses the gain is larger than that. If the home is community property, both halves can receive a new basis at the first spouse’s death, which can remove most of the gain before a later sale. Separate property and homes bought while living in another state are treated differently, so the purchase history matters.
Texas has no estate tax. Do we still need an estate plan?
Yes. The federal estate tax still applies above $15 million per person in 2026, and a house, a portfolio and a business can approach that line. More often the issue is mechanics rather than tax: a beneficiary form that contradicts the will, an inherited IRA that must be emptied within ten years, a family business with no successor named. We coordinate with your estate attorney so the documents match the intent.
How are you paid?
We are fee-only. Our clients pay us directly; we do not earn commissions on products, which keeps the advice on a family home or business free of any sale to make.
Reviewed by Theo Halbardier, CFP® · Updated September 2026 · Figures current for 2026
Tell us who the plan is for.
The first conversation is 30 minutes. Bring your questions; no preparation needed.
We work with individuals and families across Alamo Heights, Olmos Park and Terrell Hills, and throughout Texas, meeting by video or in person by arrangement.
Meet with usWe do not maintain a public office at this location; Alamo Heights is part of the area we serve. Figures reflect law and published rates as of September 2026 and may change.