Terrell Hills Home Prices in 2026: Why the Median Is Misleading Buyers

A buyer pulls up Terrell Hills on a national portal, sees a sold median in the low $400,000s, and books a Saturday of showings. By the third stop, the working assumption has collapsed. One listing is a renovated 1950s bungalow at $525,000. The next is a new custom build a block away, asking $2.4 million. A third sits in the middle at $975,000 and has been on the market for four months. Same ZIP code, same school zoning, same afternoon.

That spread is not noise. It is the entire market. And it is why buyers who lean on median price alone tend to write the wrong offer in Terrell Hills.

The number that doesn't add up

Two data points, both current, tell opposite stories.

As of July 2026, active Terrell Hills listings show a median list price of roughly $975,000 with an average price per square foot near $408 across 35 homes on the market. Movoto's July 2026 read puts the median list closer to $799,000 with price per square foot around $288, down about 18% year over year. Redfin's most recent sold data lands the median closing price at $436,000, with sold price per square foot at $253, down 10.9% year over year. Homes.com pegs the trailing twelve-month median sale at $337,000.

Those are not conflicting mistakes. They are measuring different halves of the same market. Days on market tell you the seam is real. Redfin has homes in Terrell Hills sitting a median of 104 days before closing. MyTexasHomeResource has active listings averaging 126 days. Nationally, Homes.com clocks the DOM average at 55. Terrell Hills is roughly twice that.

When list prices sit high, sold prices sit low, and inventory ages past 100 days, something structural is happening under the surface.

Two houses, one ZIP code

Here is what the split actually looks like on the ground.

What the $400,000s buys. An original 1940s or 1950s single-story on a 6,000 to 9,000 square foot lot, typically 1,400 to 2,000 square feet, with the original footprint and some combination of updated kitchen, refinished floors, or replaced HVAC. These homes close. They drive the sold median.

What the $975,000 listing represents. A renovated or expanded original home, often 2,500 to 3,500 square feet, with an addition to the rear, updated systems, and cosmetic finishes aimed at a move-up buyer. These sit longer because the finish level and the ask are competing with new construction one street over.

What the $2 million-plus tier represents. Ground-up custom builds and estate properties on larger lots. 817 Garraty, a new construction by Haven Design and Construction with completion scheduled for September 2026, is a clean example: 8-foot doors throughout, expansive steel windows, and a Wolf and Sub-Zero appliance package. At the top of the current active list, 200 Geneseo Road, a 12,270 square foot home, is asking $6.5 million. HAR's April 2026 average of $1.29 million reflects this tail, not the typical closing.

The buyer who reads a $436,000 median as "Terrell Hills is affordable" and the buyer who reads a $975,000 median as "Terrell Hills is out of reach" are both wrong. There is no single Terrell Hills price. There are three price bands stacked on top of each other on the same street.

The lot is doing most of the pricing work

Once you accept the bifurcation, the next question is why homes on the same block trade at three different multiples of square footage. The answer is under the slab.

Terrell Hills is roughly two square miles of platted lots ranging from about 6,000 to over 20,000 square feet. The Residential A zoning district, which covers the bulk of the city, sets an 80-foot minimum lot width at the building setback line and a 12,000 square foot minimum area, with named exceptions. The Lewis-Polk tract bounded by Garraty Road, Harry Wurzbach Highway, Terrell Road, and Beverly Drive is exempted down to 65-foot frontage. Waterford Villas lots are exempted down to 49.5 feet.

Those numbers decide whether a lot supports a full rebuild or only a renovation of the existing footprint. A 1950s bungalow sitting on a conforming 80-foot-wide lot has two futures: an owner who keeps it, or a builder who tears it down and replaces it. A smaller nonconforming lot has one future, and it usually ends in a preservation renovation. The price gap between those two outcomes is the price gap you are seeing in the listings.

This is the mechanism behind the sold median. Homes that close near $436,000 are, in many cases, houses being priced as houses. Homes that list near $975,000 or above are, in many cases, being priced partly as land with a rebuild option baked in.

Why the permit desk matters before you write an offer

Terrell Hills is an independent municipality, fully surrounded by San Antonio but operating its own police, its own building department, and its own code enforcement out of City Hall at 5100 N. New Braunfels Avenue. Permits do not go through the City of San Antonio. They go through My Government Online.

Three specifics matter for buyers evaluating a Terrell Hills home with any renovation or rebuild intent:

1. Ordinance 1545, adopted December 9, 2024, governs current permit standards. Any residential plan submitted after August 13, 2007 must also comply with the Residential Design Standards in Chapter 14 of the Code of Ordinances. That is a stricter architectural review than most buyers relocating from another Texas metro expect.
2. Demolition is a discrete, permitted event. The current fee schedule sets a complete demolition permit at $300 and a partial demolition permit at $200. Contractor registration runs $100 annually, and additional permit, inspection, and plan review fees are $60. Small numbers, but they signal a process that requires named, registered contractors before any work begins.
3. Construction hours are restricted. Permitted work is limited to 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, with no work on city-observed holidays. For a buyer planning a nine-month renovation, that constraint changes the schedule.

None of this shows up on a portal listing. All of it shows up in a transaction.

How Terrell Hills reads next to Alamo Heights and Olmos Park

The comparison that matters is not Terrell Hills against greater San Antonio. It is Terrell Hills against the two neighborhoods that share its school district and its 78209 ZIP.

Every address in Terrell Hills is zoned to Alamo Heights Independent School District. Elementary students typically attend Woodridge or Cambridge, then Alamo Heights Junior School, then Alamo Heights High School. That is the same district serving Alamo Heights proper and Olmos Park.

For comparable lot sizes with identical district access, Terrell Hills tends to price roughly 10% to 15% below Alamo Heights on a per-square-foot basis. That gap is the practical arbitrage inside 78209. A buyer who needs AHISD attendance and can accept a Terrell Hills address instead of an Alamo Heights address often finds a wider selection at a lower entry point, with the trade-off being older original construction and, in some pockets, smaller lots.

For military households working from a fixed Basic Allowance for Housing figure while stationed at Joint Base San Antonio, that gap translates directly into square footage. Terrell Hills sits immediately south of Fort Sam Houston, roughly four miles from downtown, with a ten-minute commute in most conditions.

What this means for how to shop

The buyer who understands the bifurcation shops differently. Instead of filtering by price, filter by intent.

If the goal is to buy a home and live in it as it stands, the productive search is the $350,000 to $550,000 band of updated original bungalows on smaller lots, and the negotiation posture is patient. With DOM above 100 days, price reductions happen.

If the goal is to buy a lot with a rebuild option, the productive search is the $700,000 to $1.2 million band of tired original homes on 80-foot-wide conforming lots, and the analysis is about setbacks, footprint, and Chapter 14 review, not finishes.

If the goal is to buy new construction ready to move into, the productive search is the small pipeline of builder-completed homes such as 817 Garraty or the Limerick 18 townhome collection, and the comparison set is other custom builds, not renovated originals.

Three separate searches, three separate strategies. One neighborhood.

Quick answers

Why is the average price on HAR so much higher than the sold median on Redfin? Average is pulled upward by a small number of estate sales and new custom builds in the multi-million range. The HAR April 2026 average of $1.29 million and the Redfin sold median of $436,000 are describing the same market from opposite ends.

Are Terrell Hills property taxes different from San Antonio's? Residents pay Bexar County plus Terrell Hills city taxes rather than City of San Antonio taxes. The line items differ. A local CPA or the Bexar Appraisal District can confirm the current combined rate for a specific parcel.

Can any lot be torn down and rebuilt? No. Lot width, lot area, and Chapter 14 design standards constrain what can be built. The 80-foot width standard, the 65-foot Lewis-Polk exception, and the 49.5-foot Waterford Villas exception are the starting points. A pre-offer conversation with the Terrell Hills building department is faster than assuming.

If you are weighing a move into 78209 and want to know which of the three Terrell Hills price bands actually fits your search, Leslie Reyes Idais can walk the specific block, pull the lot dimensions, and read the listing against what is closing nearby. Let's Connect.