Bexar County, TX
Housing | 2025
Elevated understanding of the prevalence and drivers of tax delinquency and foreclosures to reduce foreclosures and prevent displacement.
Because Texas has no income tax, property taxes are a major source of funding for schools, public services, and infrastructure. As people with higher incomes have moved into Bexar County and investor activity has spiked, a tightening housing market and rising property values have driven a sharp increase in property tax bills without a parallel increase in wealth for long-time residents. Neighborhood revitalization and gentrification are also drivers of rising property values and tax valuations. Tax foreclosures have become common and disproportionately clustered in low- and moderate-income areas of Bexar County, where properties are more likely to be owned free and clear. Community Information Now used mixed methods to understand how common tax foreclosures are, the amount of delinquent taxes owed by owners who lose their properties, and the drivers of tax foreclosure to inform practitioners and policymakers in crafting strategies to prevent tax foreclosure.
Community Information Now generated a centralized tax foreclosure and tax delinquency database for Bexar County by obtaining and digitizing five years of local property tax foreclosure auction listings and a historically detailed delinquent tax roll. Staff also interviewed service providers who support residents facing tax foreclosure to understand causes and potential preventative measures. Data were interpreted with the support of an advisory board of housing services and legal assistance providers, advocates, and other local stakeholders.
The team found that 759 residential properties in Bexar went to tax foreclosure auction between 2021 and 2025—212 in 2023 alone, likely reflecting the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Community Information Now also documented linkages between tax delinquency and heirs’ property, that is, family-owned land informally passed down through generations. Single-family homes and vacant lots that are heirs’ property were found to be five times as likely as non-heirs’ property to be tax delinquent. To help inform local policy and programmatic interventions, the team then conducted a landscape scan to learn what other US cities are doing to prevent tax foreclosure.
The City of San Antonio Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, LISC San Antonio, and others will use the data to guide actions related to preventing and reducing tax delinquency and foreclosure in the collaborative Strategic Housing Implementation Plan. Additionally, the project will inform the work of ESTAR West, a San Antonio initiative focused on stabilizing and accelerating equitable recovery of Latino small businesses. ESTAR West also aims to prevent resident displacement, working in partnership with the Historic Westside Residents Association. ESTAR West’s own tax foreclosure risk research, for which Community Information Now provided data support, is delineating tiers of displacement risk.