Apartments in Northeast San Antonio: Live Oak, Universal City & Converse
The Northeast corridor along I-35 and Loop 1604 is the closest large apartment concentration to JBSA-Randolph, which shapes everything about it: lease terms flex around PCS cycles, military clause questions come up constantly, and inventory turns over on the summer orders calendar.
- Live Oak
- Universal City
- Converse
- Selma
- Windcrest
Same-day response during posted business hours.
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Free to renters
Community pays the referral fee
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TREC #9003398
Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC
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NAAL member
National Association of Apartment Locators
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Same-Day Response
During posted business hours
The gap between the listing and the answer
A renter working from a listing site sees sticker price and no signal about whether their application will clear in Northeast. Both gaps close with the same work.
The listing shows price, not policy
Zillow tells you a unit is available. It does not tell you the property wants 620 credit with a 7-year eviction lookback and will not take a guarantor. Two buildings on the same street, same rent, run different standards.
Application fees are the real cost of guessing
They run $50-$75 each and are non-refundable. Apply at four properties that were never going to approve your file and you have spent $200-$300 to be told no four times.
A $200 balance blocks like a $2,000 one
Property debt is the hardest single screening factor in San Antonio. A small balance is rarely ignorable; at a lot of properties it is a hard stop until it is cleared or a payment plan is documented.
The advertised rent is not the monthly cost
Valet trash, pest, RUBS water and sewer, billing admin and tech or amenity packages add 7-15% over base rent, and CPS Energy swings hard in summer.
Rent by unit type in Northeast San Antonio
Ranges across the communities we work with in this submarket. The July 2026 metro averages for comparison: studio $888, 1BR $1,095, 2BR $1,394, 3BR $1,826.
| Unit type | Typical range | What drives the spread |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | $750 - $1,000 | Scarce; the corridor is built around 1BR and 2BR demand. |
| 1 Bedroom | $950 - $1,300 | Sits close to or below the July 2026 metro average of $1,095. |
| 2 Bedroom | $1,200 - $1,700 | The volume unit type here, and the one BAH most often targets. |
| 3 Bedroom | $1,600 - $2,200 | Common in newer 1604-adjacent product. |
Ranges across the communities we work with, confirmed July 2026. Metro baseline: RentCafe / Yardi Matrix, July 2026. Add the mandatory fee stack (7-15% over base rent) for your real monthly cost.
Commutes from Northeast San Antonio
Off-peak drive-time estimates to the employment centers this submarket actually serves. Peak-hour times on Loop 410, Loop 1604, I-10, I-35 and US-281 run materially longer.
| Destination | Off-peak drive | Route |
|---|---|---|
| JBSA-Randolph | 5-15 min | Pat Booker Rd / FM 78 |
| JBSA-Fort Sam Houston | 20-30 min | I-35 S |
| Downtown employment core | 25-35 min | I-35 S |
Off-peak estimates, confirmed July 2026. We check your specific address and shift on request.
What the stock in Northeast is actually made of
A wide mix. Newer Class A along the Loop 1604 side, a deep bench of 1980s Class B and C along Pat Booker Road and FM 78, and steady infill in Selma and Converse. That 1980s layer matters: statewide, the largest single share of San Antonio's rental stock, about 18%, roughly 47,352 units, was built between 1980 and 1989, and this corridor holds a lot of it.
Why building age matters to your application
About 18% of San Antonio's rental stock, roughly 47,352 units, was built between 1980 and 1989. That older Class B and C product is where an on-site manager still makes case-by-case decisions on a complicated file. Newer Class A generally runs a software rule with a hard floor. If your file carries a credit, rental history or background complication, the age profile of a submarket predicts your odds better than its reputation does.
How we handle specific communities in Northeast
Northeast communities in our Screening & Cost Index carry credit minimum, eviction lookback and whether it is balance-dependent, property-debt policy, and the current concession with a confirmation date. Because this corridor turns over on the PCS calendar, we re-verify it more often than most and hand you the current set rather than a published list.
We publish aggregates rather than a public property list for one reason: a named list with a credit minimum attached goes stale within weeks, and a stale screening number is worse than no number. Every community entry we hand you carries the date it was last confirmed and who confirmed it. That is the standard our San Antonio apartment locators hold across every submarket in Bexar County, and it stays free to you.
Get the current list for NortheastHow we search Northeast
Same three screening hubs, applied to this submarket's specific stock and screening standards.
Credit Issues
The credit file itself. Score, thin file, derogatory marks, and income qualification, matched to properties that will review it.
- Credit-band-to-class table: 650+ opens everything, down to Class C only under 550
- Deposit ranges and when a third-party guarantee applies
Rental History
What a prior landlord reported, broken leases, evictions, and property debt. The highest-intent of the three screening hubs.
- How amount owed and age of the incident drive the outcome
- Property-debt playbook, clear it or document a payment plan first
Background Issues
Criminal history, handled with the most care of the three hubs. Property policies stated factually, never framed as automatically disqualifying or acceptable.
- How offense age and class change the outcome
- Which property classes review older non-violent records case-by-case
Military & PCS Relocation
BAH-aligned, base-proximate searches for service members and PCS movers across Joint Base San Antonio, with SCRA guidance.
- BAH-to-neighborhood alignment by rank (MHA TX285)
- Proximity and commute realities for each JBSA base
Relocation & Remote Renters
For out-of-town renters who can't tour from 1,000 miles away, video walkthroughs, remote applications, and submarket orientation.
- Video walkthroughs of shortlisted units
- Remote application and lease signing
Luxury & High-Rise
High-rise and luxury inventory in the Pearl, Downtown, Stone Oak, La Cantera, and The Rim, with full fee-stack transparency at the top end.
- Which submarkets hold true high-rise and luxury stock
- The compressed ~$180/month luxury-to-mid-tier gap
Moving Concierge
Utility, internet, and insurance setup framed around San Antonio's unique municipal utility stack, CPS Energy and SAWS.
- CPS Energy setup (sole electric provider) and seasonality budgeting
- SAWS water/sewer setup
Four steps to a verified Northeast list
Tell us the complication
Three screening questions, credit, rental history, background, plus budget and move date. Nothing is shared with a property until you say so.
We pre-qualify your file
We check your file against current standards for communities in Northeast, and call the leasing office directly where the answer is not already recorded.
You get a verified list with the full math
Properties that will review your file, each with base rent, the mandatory fee stack, current concession, net effective rent and a confirmation date.
We advocate through application and lease
We flag your file to the leasing office ahead of the application, follow up during review, and handle a remote application and lease signing if you are moving from out of town.
Northeast San Antonio on the map
Searching in Northeast?
Tell us the complication and the budget. We will tell you which communities here will review your file.
Why Northeast renters choose us
We publish the screening numbers
The rent range, commute times and class mix on this page are not behind a form. Check any other San Antonio locator site and see whether you can find the same thing for this submarket.
We pre-qualify before you pay anything
Your file gets checked against a property's current standards before you submit a non-refundable application fee. If it will not clear, we say so and route you somewhere it will.
We talk to leasing offices weekly
That is how we know which Northeast properties just dropped a credit minimum, which concessions never hit a listing site, and which on-site managers genuinely review a complicated file.
Free to you, and we explain how
The community pays a referral fee out of the budget it would otherwise spend on listing-site advertising. No cash-back gimmick, no fee to you, no charge if you never lease.
What renters searching Northeast say
We publish reviews only from this brand's own Google Business Profile, with written permission. The examples below are illustrative of the work and are labelled as such until verified reviews replace them.
"They ran my file first and told me straight which properties would look at a broken lease with a balance still owed. No wasted application fees."
Renter (example)
Northeast San Antonio
"I was PCSing to Fort Sam from out of state and leased sight-unseen off a video walkthrough. They matched the search to my BAH by rank."
Service Member (example)
Fort Sam Houston
"They showed me the full monthly cost, valet trash, RUBS, the tech fee, not just the sticker rent. The 'cheaper' unit was actually more expensive."
Renter (example)
Medical Center
Northeast San Antonio: your questions
How close is Live Oak to Randolph AFB?
Very close, 5 to 15 minutes to the JBSA-Randolph gates from most Live Oak and Universal City addresses via Pat Booker Road or FM 78. Gate choice and shift timing move that number more than distance does, so tell us your report time and we will factor it.
Will my BAH cover a two-bedroom in the Northeast corridor?
For many ranks, yes. Two-bedrooms here run roughly $1,200 to $1,700 across the communities we work with. The catch is that BAH has to cover the full monthly stack, not base rent alone. Valet trash, pest, RUBS and tech fees add 7-15%, so we budget against the all-in figure.
Do properties here handle military clauses well?
Most are used to them because of the Randolph concentration, but the wording varies by lease and management company. We ask for the military clause language before you apply, and JBSA Legal Assistance can review your specific lease. We give the general overview, not legal advice.
Is this corridor good if I have a broken lease?
It is one of the better places to look. The 1980s Class B and C stock along Pat Booker and FM 78 includes a meaningful share of communities that review rental history case-by-case, especially with a zero balance. A balance still owed is the harder variable. It usually has to be cleared or documented first.
How bad is the I-35 commute Downtown?
Off-peak it runs 25 to 35 minutes. Peak-hour I-35 southbound is materially worse and unpredictable, which is the main reason Northeast renters working Downtown often choose a different submarket. If your job is Downtown and your shift is standard hours, we will show you the alternative before you sign.
When is inventory tightest here?
May through August, alongside peak PCS and the school cycle. December through February is the loosest window in this corridor and carries the deepest concessions, often the difference between a June lease and a January lease is $2,000 to $3,000 over the term on the same unit.
Can you handle the whole search if I have not arrived yet?
Yes. Inbound PCS and relocation searches run entirely remotely: intake, shortlist, video walkthrough of the actual unit, remote application and lease signing. We tell you what a walkthrough captures and what it cannot.
Question not answered here?
Send it over with your file details and we will answer it against current property standards, not a general rule of thumb.
Get Started, FreeAlso searching near Northeast?
East San Antonio
The Schertz, Cibolo and Universal City corridor sits at the edge of Bexar and Guadalupe counties, next to JBSA-Randolph. Most of the apartment stock is newer suburban product, and the corridor has its own school district and municipal services.
See the numbersAlamo Heights & North Central
Alamo Heights, Castle Hills, Shavano Park and Hollywood Park are separate municipalities inside the Bexar County map, and that matters more than it sounds: municipal boundaries shape which school district a building sits in, which changes rent by unit type inside a two-mile radius.
See the numbersAll submarket guides
Rent by unit type, commutes and class mix across all 12 San Antonio submarkets we cover.
Apartment help in Northeast San Antonio
Free pre-qualification, same-day response during posted hours. We publish the numbers so you can apply where you have a real chance.
- Free to you. The community pays the referral fee
- Licensed under Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC
- No approval promises, no undated numbers