There's lots of good places to live. My preferred area to live in is the North Central area. There are so many good spots to settle down in. I prefer to live outside of Loop 1604. We have two main loops that run a complete circle around SA....the inner being 410 and the outer being 1604. We live outside loop 1604 up towards Bulverde area (Stone Oak area). The only issue you will really find up here is a lot of traffic at rush hour. We are currently working on getting a major highway put in along 281 NB out of 1604. Take a stroll going NB on 281 at rush hour and you will see why....IT SUCKS.
There are a lot of good schools around. The better schools being Churchill, Clark, Alamo Heights, Reagan, and now Johnson HS. No matter which school your girls go to (and I'm being completely honest here), you are bound to find drugs will be present in one form or another. As long as they are brought up properly, it won't be an issue. Yes, I'm an officer...and yes, I've heard from all the kids how easy stuff is to get....no matter which school it is listed above. Just teach them properly and they will be fine.
Crime varies all over the city...types of crimes. Some areas are total Meth which leads to many burglaries of homes and of cars. KEEP YOUR VALUABLES OUT OF SITE IN YOUR CAR and you will NEVER have a problem getting your vehicle burglarized. So many hundreds of people leave their crap out in the open and they actually act surprised when their stuff is stolen from their car. I mean....would you leave $2,000 in CASH sitting on your passenger seat w/ a simple window between the cash and the outside world looking in? .....(if you say yes.....). Of course not. BUT...people leave their laptops sitting in the bags w/ tons of equipment on the seats, floor boards, "hidden" under a jacket and it MIGHT AS WELL be 2k in cash....don't matter to the burglar. Also take down your GPS units and take off the suction cup from the window. Common sense here.... If you have it and again, leave valuables out of site, your car will never be broken into. I bring this up because like most other cities, meth is poplular here and when you have people who use meth, your property crimes sky rocket....(IE: CAR BURGLARIES). A little common sense goes a long way here.
I suggest flying in BEFORE picking out a spot to live in. Fly in, check out the area, ASK US ABOUT IT, and we will comment on what's good/bad about the area. I'd be MORE than willing to help you out and answer questions as I'm sure there are plenty more of us who would like to help.
Will you be getting into a house? Or, will you be moving into an apartment?
House market is great here. You can get into so much more space for the dollar than most other places in the country. That's why SA is something like the #2 spot to retire in the country....I think....maybe #6?...I can't remember. But, it was on the list.
Again, ask some specific questions and we'll be happy to answer.
Oh yeah...no "winter storage" for your camaro down here! HA! It'll get cold for maybe a couple weeks out of the year.....like really cold (which for us might be upper 20's).