Universal City, Texas.
Typical home $259,288 (-2.3% in a year), asking rent $1,189 (-1.2%). San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$632 (+87%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,106 -2%
- $265,393$259,288 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $16,410 +7%
- $242,878$259,288 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Universal City$1,361
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 53 years.
Typical home values in Universal City, TX fell 2.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Universal City, TX fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Universal City runs $824/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $985 in Oct 2023.
That is $2,012 a month against $1,189 rent: a $1,361 mortgage payment, plus $374 property tax and $278 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Universal City
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,012
- Renting$1,189
- Mortgage only$1,361
Property tax · $374/mo 1.73% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Bexar County, TX
Insurance & upkeep · $278/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Universal City, Bexar County, Texas
Universal City is a city of 19,720 people in Bexar County. Half its households earn more than $74,811 a year and half less, against $72,341 across Bexar County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Bexar County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Universal City is a small city in Bexar County, in the San Antonio area. Most households here own their homes, though a good share rent, and incomes run a little above the county's. Winters are mild, with January the coldest month and highs still well above freezing, while summers are hot, peaking in August.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in the city are H-E-B, Northeast Lakeview College and Walmart. Many people drive some distance to work, and fewer work from home than might be expected.
Things to do. Toyota Field, a stadium, and Natural Bridge Caverns, a protected cave area, are both a short drive away, and Bracken Cave, another protected area, is close by as well. For a longer outing, San Antonio Zoo and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park are a longer drive away.
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- 8,175households
- 34%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bexar County had 937,109 jobs in 2025, 0.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 63° and lows near 41°; warmest in August, with highs near 96° and lows near 73°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Randolph Afb weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Universal City
- H-E-BRetail506
- Northeast Lakeview CollegeTwo-year college373
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters285
- CarrierPlumbing heating and air-conditioning contractors246
- JanaDocument preparation services117
- Universal City, TX-BiolifePlasmapheresis center89
- Performance MechanicalPlumbing and heating contractors85
- Tissue RegenixLaboratories, medical73
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,528 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24). Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of Universal CityRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Universal City’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Bexar County and the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metro.
Universal City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Universal City$259,288
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 2 Universal City listings, and the typical home goes pending in 31 days — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Universal City40.97%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Universal City31
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Universal City118
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Universal City25
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Universal City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Universal City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.