Velvet Realty Group Blog
Live Oak, TX at I-35 and Loop 1604: Homes, Taxes, Utilities, Commutes
Live Oak is a small city at the I-35 and Loop 1604 interchange, with about 4,800 homes, mostly built in the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s. Its homes split between two school districts and two water providers. Here are the tax, utility, housing, flood, road and market facts, each with its source and date.
The short version. Live Oak is a small city of about 4.8 square miles of land in Bexar County. It sits where Interstate 35 meets Loop 1604, on the northeast edge of the San Antonio area. It was incorporated in 1960. The appraisal roll counts 4,784 homes inside the city. Most were built in the 1970s and 1980s, with a second wave in the 2000s, and the median home has about 1,650 square feet on roughly 0.18 acre. Every Live Oak home pays a city tax. Each home also pays one of two school district taxes: Judson ISD or North East ISD, depending on the address. The city runs its own water and sewer system for about two thirds of residents, and SAWS serves most of the rest. TxDOT's elevated-lane project on I-35 runs through the city, with completion estimated for late 2027.
This guide is for a buyer deciding whether Live Oak deserves a place on the shortlist. Our Live Oak area page covers how we compare homes there. This page adds the records: taxes, utilities, school districts, housing stock, flood maps, road work and the current market. Each fact carries its source and the date we read it, October 3, 2026. Where we could not confirm something, we say so and tell you where to check.
Where Live Oak is, and whose rules apply
Boundary. Live Oak is an incorporated city, so its boundary is the city limit, not an MLS area or an informal neighborhood name. The Census Bureau's 2024 gazetteer gives the city 4.757 square miles of land. The City of Live Oak's history page says the city was incorporated in 1960 and that its founders chose the I-35 and Loop 1604 interchange as its location. A "Live Oak" mailing address or a "San Antonio" address does not settle which city a house is in. The tax units on the property's account do (see below).
County, ZIP and size. Bexar County. The city offices are at 8001 Shin Oak Drive, Live Oak, TX 78233. ZIP 78233 also covers part of San Antonio, so the ZIP and the city are not the same area. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimates 15,984 residents and 6,955 housing units for 2020 to 2024.
Roads and neighbors. The city grew around the Interstate 35 and Loop 1604 interchange. Nearby cities include Universal City, Selma, Converse and Schertz, with San Antonio around them.
What the homes are like
We counted every parcel that carries the City of Live Oak tax unit on Bexar County's parcel layer, which publishes the appraisal district's roll (read October 3, 2026). Of 5,462 parcels, 4,784 are coded as a home (state code A1, a single-family house). The rest include 284 vacant lots, 189 commercial parcels, 114 residential lots recorded without a home, and 53 parcels coded as duplex or apartment property.
| Decade built | Homes |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 1 |
| 1960s | 639 |
| 1970s | 1,474 |
| 1980s | 858 |
| 1990s | 98 |
| 2000s | 1,010 |
| 2010s | 489 |
| 2020 to 2024 | 204 |
Eleven home records have no year built and are not counted. The roll lags construction, so a house finished this year may not appear yet.
- Age: the median home was built in 1984. Building slowed in the 1990s: only 98 homes on the roll date from that decade.
- Living area: median 1,655 square feet. Eight in ten fall between 1,148 and 2,792 square feet. The smallest is 759 and the largest 4,600.
- Lot size: median 0.184 acre, about 8,000 square feet. Eight in ten lots fall between 0.139 and 0.253 acre, about 6,000 to 11,000 square feet.
- Stories: 3,475 one-story homes, 1,109 two-story homes and 189 coded as one and a half stories.
The Census Bureau's survey adds the apartments the single-family roll leaves out. Of an estimated 6,955 housing units in 2020 to 2024, about 4,806 were detached single-family homes and about 1,463 were in buildings with 10 or more units (American Community Survey 5-year estimates, tables B25001 and B25024, with margins of error of several hundred units). Its estimated median year built for all housing units is 1990.
For one house, check its account on the Bexar Appraisal District site. Its records can differ from a listing.
Property taxes: every unit on a Live Oak account
Every Live Oak home parcel carries the same six units on the county's parcel layer: the appraisal district, codes 06, 08, 09, 10 and 11, and code 33 for the City of Live Oak. Each also carries one school district: code 54 for Judson ISD or code 55 for North East ISD. We found no municipal utility district (MUD) or public improvement district (PID) code on any of them. A MUD or PID is a special district that adds its own tax or assessment to a bill.
| Taxing unit | 2025 rate |
|---|---|
| City of Live Oak | $0.386734 |
| Bexar County | $0.276331 |
| University Health (Bexar County Hospital District) | $0.276235 |
| Alamo Colleges District | $0.149150 |
| Bexar County Road and Flood | $0.023668 |
| San Antonio River Authority | $0.018300 |
| Subtotal before the school district | $1.130418 |
| North East ISD (code 55) | $0.982200 |
| Judson ISD (code 54), as the county list shows it | $1.079600 (disputed, see below) |
The subtotal is our sum of the published rates. On the North East ISD side, the 2025 total comes to $2.112618 per $100 before exemptions, or about $2,113 a year for each $100,000 of taxable value.
The Judson ISD rate is not settled in the records we read. The county's September 30, 2025 list shows $1.0796. On November 4, 2025, Judson ISD voters rejected Proposition A, a tax-rate election that would have raised the district's rate by 4.5 cents to $1.0796 (Community Impact, November 4, 2025). Texas Public Radio reported on November 7, 2025 that the county tax office was mailing revised Judson ISD bills at the lower voter-approval rate. By our arithmetic, that rate is about $1.0346. Other published figures differ, and the county's posted list had not been updated when we read it. Check the Judson ISD line on the actual account before you budget.
Exemptions. In 2025 the city's homestead exemption was 20 percent (at least $5,000) and its over-65 exemption $40,000. Both school districts listed a $140,000 homestead exemption (Bexar County 2025 rate list). Our property tax calculator runs the arithmetic for a price you enter.
2026 rates. Local units set their 2026 rates in the fall. We did not find adopted 2026 rates for the City of Live Oak, Judson ISD or North East ISD in the sources we read, so this table uses 2025.
Two school districts
Live Oak is split between two school districts. On the appraisal roll, 2,648 Live Oak homes carry Judson ISD and 2,136 carry North East ISD. Two parcels carry both. The district follows the address, not the city, so neighbors in Live Oak can be in different districts.
To confirm a district and campus for one address, use North East ISD's Find Your Campus search, or call Judson ISD. Judson ISD's boundary page did not load for us on October 3, 2026. For campus performance data, read the state's Texas School Report Cards. We do not rank schools.
Utilities
- Water and sewer: the City of Live Oak runs its own water and sewer system. The city says that system serves about two thirds of residents and that the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) serves most of the other third. Ask the city's utility office, (210) 653-9141, which one serves the address. The two have different rates and different accounts.
- Trash and recycling: billed by the city with water. Public Works lists WM (Waste Management) trash collection among its services. The city's online map shows the pickup day for an address.
- Electricity, natural gas and internet: not documented from a primary source in this guide. Ask the seller which companies serve the house and confirm with each provider before closing.
Water, sewer and trash come from the City of Live Oak's Find My Water Provider, Water and Garbage Billing, and Public Works pages, read October 3, 2026.
Flood map status
We compared the center point of every Live Oak home parcel with FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer on October 3, 2026. Of 4,784 homes, 11 had their center inside a Special Flood Hazard Area, all in Zone AE. A Special Flood Hazard Area is the zone where flood insurance is required for a federally backed mortgage, and Zone AE is the version with a mapped flood elevation. FEMA's map also shows Zone A and Zone AE areas in and around the city outside those 11 center points.
Our check used each parcel's center, so a home whose back yard crosses a mapped zone may not appear in that count. For one lot, pull the address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, read the seller's disclosure, and get an insurance quote during the option period.
Parks and public facilities
The city's Parks and Recreation department maintains more than 100 acres of park land, including Main City Park, Lakeside and Woodcrest Park. The department lists four baseball fields, a football field, a skate park and two 18-hole disc golf courses, along with a city pool (City of Live Oak Parks and Recreation page, read October 3, 2026). Hours, fees and any resident-only rules are on the city's park pages.
Commute anchors and the I-35 work
We have not timed any drive from Live Oak, so this page gives no commute minutes. These are mapped driving distances from the city offices at 8001 Shin Oak Drive, using OpenStreetMap road data through the OSRM routing service on October 3, 2026:
| Destination | Route distance |
|---|---|
| Northeast Lakeview College, 1201 Kitty Hawk Road, Universal City | 1.8 miles |
| Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston | 10.3 miles |
| San Antonio International Airport | 10.4 miles |
| The Alamo, downtown San Antonio | 15.1 miles |
We did not measure a route to a JBSA-Randolph gate, because the public map data we used does not mark the gates. Our JBSA-Randolph housing page and the Lackland, Randolph and Fort Sam comparison cover the base. A useful test is two drives from the house to your actual destination at your actual start time, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with the date written down.
Road work. TxDOT's I-35 NEX Central project is building elevated lanes on I-35 from I-410 North to FM 3009, through northeast San Antonio, Live Oak, Selma and Schertz. It adds three elevated lanes in each direction, two general lanes and one high-occupancy vehicle lane, with direct connections to I-410 North and Loop 1604 West. Construction began in June 2022 and TxDOT estimates completion in late 2027 (TxDOT project page, read October 3, 2026). Until then, ramp and lane closures near the interchange change from week to week, so time a test drive close to your move.
The market: ZIP 78233 in September 2026
No public monthly series covers the City of Live Oak alone, and we did not use MLS sales for this page. The nearest published figures are for ZIP 78233, which includes Live Oak and part of San Antonio.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median listing price | $243,427 (down 6.5% from September 2025) |
| Active listings | 171 (up 0.9% from a year earlier) |
| New listings in the month | 40 |
| Pending listings | 50 (down 16.1% from a year earlier) |
| Median days on market | 58 |
| Listings with a price cut | 78, or 29.2% of active listings |
| Median listing price per square foot | $150, on a median listing of 1,627 square feet |
In plain terms: the ZIP had about as many homes for sale as a year earlier, at lower asking prices, with fewer pending contracts and nearly three in ten listings cut. For a longer view, the Census Bureau's survey estimates the median value of owner-occupied homes in the City of Live Oak at $246,300 for 2020 to 2024 (table B25077). That figure is owners' own estimate of value, averaged over five years, not a sale price. Our market update tracks the San Antonio area each month. For a sold-price range in Live Oak, ask us and we will pull closed sales for the streets you are considering.
How to check a Live Oak address
- City, school district and taxing units: the property's account on the Bexar Appraisal District site, and the current bill on the Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector site.
- Water and sewer provider: the City of Live Oak utility office, (210) 653-9141.
- School campus: North East ISD's Find Your Campus search, or Judson ISD's central office.
- Flood zone: FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for the address, plus an insurance quote.
- HOA: ask the seller whether a homeowners association covers the house, and if one does, order the resale certificate early in the option period.
- Commute: two timed drives at your real start time, and TxDOT's current I-35 closures.
What we have not documented yet
We have not confirmed these, and we have not guessed: which Live Oak subdivisions have a homeowners association, and their dues; a complete list of Live Oak subdivisions; the electricity, natural gas and internet providers for a given address; the exact water provider for any one address; any timed drive, including to JBSA-Randolph; a sold-price range for Live Oak; the 2025 Judson ISD rate as finally billed; adopted 2026 rates for any unit; and campus assignment for a specific address.
Questions about Live Oak
Is Live Oak part of San Antonio?
No. Live Oak is its own incorporated city in Bexar County, incorporated in 1960, with its own city tax, police, fire, and water and sewer system. ZIP 78233 covers parts of both Live Oak and San Antonio, so the mailing address does not settle the city.
Which school district serves Live Oak?
Two do. On the Bexar County appraisal roll, 2,648 Live Oak homes are in Judson ISD and 2,136 are in North East ISD. The district depends on the address, so confirm it on the property's tax account and with the district.
What is the property tax rate in Live Oak?
For 2025, the city, county, hospital district, Alamo Colleges, county road and flood, and river authority rates add up to $1.130418 per $100 of taxable value before exemptions. North East ISD adds $0.9822, for a total of $2.112618. The Judson ISD rate is disputed between the county's posted list ($1.0796) and the rollback after the November 2025 election, so check the actual bill.
Who provides water in Live Oak?
The City of Live Oak provides water and sewer to about two thirds of residents, and SAWS serves most of the rest, according to the city. Ask the city's utility office which one serves a specific address.
Is Live Oak in a flood zone?
Most of it is not. On October 3, 2026, 11 of 4,784 Live Oak home parcels had their center inside a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, all in Zone AE. Check FEMA's map for the specific address and get an insurance quote.
Sources
- Bexar County, parcel layer (Bexar Appraisal District roll data). Taxing units, state codes, year built, living area, lot size and stories for parcels carrying tax unit 33, City of Live Oak. Read 2026-10-03.
- Bexar Appraisal District, 2024 Tax Factors and Rates, for the jurisdiction codes (33 City of Live Oak, 54 Judson ISD, 55 North East ISD). Read 2026-10-01 and 2026-10-03.
- Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector, 2025 Tax Rates, run September 30, 2025. Read 2026-10-03.
- Community Impact, "Judson ISD tax rate proposition fails to pass, unofficial results show", November 4, 2025. Read 2026-10-03.
- Texas Public Radio, "Revised tax statements headed to Judson, East Central ISD residents", November 7, 2025. Read 2026-10-03.
- City of Live Oak, History, Find My Water Provider, Water and Garbage Billing, Public Works and Parks and Recreation pages. Read 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Gazetteer place file (Live Oak city, 4843096, land area), and American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year summary file, tables B01003, B25001, B25024, B25035 and B25077 (files dated January 29, 2026). Read 2026-10-03.
- North East ISD, Find Your Campus. Read 2026-10-03.
- FEMA, National Flood Hazard Layer, flood hazard zones. Read 2026-10-03.
- TxDOT, I-35 NEX Central project page. Read 2026-10-03.
- Realtor.com, Residential listings database, ZIP-level monthly inventory file, September 2026 row for 78233 (file updated September 30, 2026). Downloaded and read 2026-10-03.
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder and OpenStreetMap road data via the OSRM routing service, for the mapped driving distances. Computed 2026-10-03.
Where these figures come from
| Homes, taxing units and school-district split | Bexar County parcel layer of appraisal-district roll data, filtered to parcels carrying tax unit 33 (City of Live Oak). Counts, medians and ranges are our arithmetic from those records. No owner names or addresses were stored. |
|---|---|
| Flood | Each home parcel's center point compared with FEMA's mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas. |
| Housing units and value estimates | American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Live Oak city, with their margins of error. |
| Market | Realtor.com ZIP 78233, September 2026, active listings. No closed-sale data is used. |
| Published | 2026-10-04 |
| Data through | 2026-09-30 for market figures. All sources read 2026-10-03. |
| Next review due | 2026-11-03 for the market panel and road work. 2026-12-01 for 2026 tax rates and the Judson ISD rate. 2027-04-03 for utility, flood and park facts. |
| Corrections | If a figure on this page does not match its source, tell us and we will correct it and update the review date. |
Related guides
This page adds records to our Live Oak area page, part of our service areas. Nearby cities have their own guides: Universal City, Selma, Converse and Schertz. If you are arriving on orders, start with the military relocation page. Our buyer page explains how we work with buyers.
Ask for a Live Oak shortlist
Send us your budget and the parts of Live Oak you like. We will match current listings and include the school district, taxing units, water provider and flood map for each one, with the date we read each.
Velvet Realty Group is brokered by LPT Realty, LLC. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Compare Live Oak homes with the records already pulled.
Send us your budget and the streets you like. We will match current listings and include the school district, taxing units, water provider and flood map for each one.