Oil Drilling Affecting San Antonio Real Estate

There's an oil boom going on in South Texas!  The Eagle Ford Shale area includes 22 counties, mostly south of San Antonio, and the population in those counties has skyrocketed in the last year.  In the San Antonio Express News, the writer states that hotel revenues in those counties soared by more than 34 percent in the last 12 months.

Rental housing is hard to come by in those areas, and the demand spills over into many areas of San Antonio.  As surveyors, drillers and other oilfield workers poured into the largely rural counties that occupy the Eagle Ford, hotels quickly began to fill, RV parks multiplied and nontraditional residential sites called man camps appeared.

Some workers are purchasing homes in San Antonio for multiple workers to use as a residence while commuting to work south of town.  Since the oil boom is expected to continue for years, there's more good news for the San Antonio area economy and the San Antonio real estate market.

World's Largest Colony of Bats Just Minutes Outside San Antonio

Bracken Cave, off FM 3009 in southern Comal County, is home to  approximately 20 million Mexican  free-tailed bats.  Every summer evening they vortex out into the sky in search of insects to eat. The emergence of the  mammals lasts for hours.  During its summer stay in South Central Texas, the Bracken colony nightly eats tons of insects, including mosquitoes, providing natural pest control for farmers as well as city dwellers, while pollinating plants and spreading seeds.

Until  earlier  this month,  the  public  did  not  have  access  to the  site.  But  now,  there  are  egular tours five nights a week for people to experience the phenomenon up-close, at $24.99 per person.  The evening bat tour,  limited to 60 people per  day,  begins with an interpretive talk at nearby Natural Bridge Caverns, followed by a short hike to Bracken Cave to see the  bats  emerge.

Visiting San Antonio this summer?  Now you have another reason to come!