Boerne vs. New Braunfels for Retirement: Taxes, Prices, and the Honest Fit

This is the video I send clients weighing Boerne: an honest walk through what the town costs, what it delivers, and who it fits.

On my channel: Boerne Texas Reality Check: Dream Town or Expensive Mistake?

The price difference, in dollars

Redfin's 2026 medians put Boerne at about $505,000 and New Braunfels at about $347,000. In practice that means most Boerne neighborhoods sit in the $400,000s to $700,000s and up, while New Braunfels spans older classics and river-adjacent homes in the $200,000s up through newer subdivisions in the $300,000s to $600,000s. For a family selling a paid-off house, either town can free meaningful equity. For buyers who need to stretch a number, New Braunfels goes considerably further, and that difference is often the whole decision.

Property taxes, side by side

Kendall County carries a median effective property tax rate around 1.00% to 1.10%, with a typical annual bill near $4,630 to $5,656 on a median home value around $516,870 in Boerne. Comal County runs about 0.96% to 1.21%, with a typical bill near $3,558 to $4,827 on a median value around $399,000 to $427,000. Note what is happening: the effective rates are close, and the bill difference mostly tracks home values, not county appetite. Two more numbers for the stack: Kendall County's own rate sits around $0.377 per $100 of valuation, and Comal County set its own rate at $0.305015 per $100 for 2026. In both counties, homeowners 65 and older qualify for the over-65 exemption, and once you file, the school portion of the bill freezes at the amount owed in the year you first qualify under Texas Tax Code Section 11.26.

• Kendall County property tax data on Ownwell
• Comal County property tax data on Taxdrop
• City of Boerne current tax rates

Where the 55+ options live

Both towns have real active-adult choices. Around Boerne, the biggest name is Regency at Esperanza, a Toll Brothers 55+ enclave of roughly 525 homes inside the larger Esperanza master plan, with prices from about $470,000 and Esperanza's master HOA around $234 a quarter with a Regency assessment on top. Around New Braunfels, the spread runs wider: Del Webb at Veramendi from about $327,990, The Grove at Vintage Oaks from about $490,000, and Voss Farms from about $212,000. Either way, plenty of empty nesters skip the age restriction entirely and buy a smaller single-story home in an age-diverse neighborhood, which keeps the resale pool broad and the dues modest.

• Regency at Esperanza on 55places
• Veramendi 55+ community on 55places

Downtown Boerne vs. river-town New Braunfels

Both towns sit roughly 30 to 40 minutes from downtown San Antonio in normal traffic, with residents averaging about 26 minutes one way in Boerne and about 27 in New Braunfels in Census data. Boerne is a walkable historic main street with boutiques, eateries, the Cibolo Creek trail network, and the Guadalupe River nearby. New Braunfels is defined by the Comal and Guadalupe rivers, summer tubing, the Gruene music scene, and Wurstfest. Empty nesters tend to choose based on which day off they picture: a slow coffee walk in Boerne or a river afternoon in New Braunfels. Neither answer is wrong.

Grandkids, schools, and medical access

Even buyers without school-age children care about schools for visiting grandkids and for resale. Boerne ISD carries a Niche grade of A and ranks third among San Antonio-area districts, while Comal ISD also earns an A with New Braunfels ISD at B+, and feeder patterns are address-specific in both towns, so I always verify the exact district for a given home. For medical care, both towns run roughly 30 to 45 minutes from San Antonio's hospitals and medical centers, and each town has its own clinics and urgent care options nearby.

The honest recommendation

If the deciding factors are schools, a walkable small town, and the most polished Hill Country setting, and the price premium is comfortable, Boerne is worth it. If the rivers, the music, a wider price range, and sitting halfway between San Antonio and Austin matter more, New Braunfels is the call. And for many empty nesters the truth is simpler: pick the town that fits your budget and your favorite day off, then choose a right-sized home inside it.