Buying a home in New Braunfels

The area at a glance

New Braunfels is the seat of Comal County, and part of the city crosses into Guadalupe County. Homes in town are split between two school districts, New Braunfels ISD and Comal ISD, so two houses on opposite sides of town can carry different tax rates.

Comal County also has unincorporated areas, like those around Canyon Lake, where you'd pay no city tax but may pay an emergency services district instead.

2026 tax rates

For a home inside city limits on the Comal County side, these are the 2026 rates before exemptions:

Comal County's 0.273% plus its lateral road rate of 0.032015%, per the county's 2026 list of adopted rates. Homes on the Guadalupe County side, outside city limits, or in a utility district (MUD) have different rates.

For comparison, a home inside San Antonio city limits runs about 2.30% to 2.51%. See my Bexar County guide for those rates.

A worked example

Take a $300,000 home inside New Braunfels, in New Braunfels ISD, appraised at its price:

• Without a homestead exemption: about $5,275 a year.
• With the state's $140,000 school exemption: about $3,822 a year, or roughly $319 a month.

In Comal ISD, the same home comes to about $3,882 a year, or $323 a month. These figures only count the state school exemption. Any extra county or city homestead exemption lowers them a little more, and the Comal Appraisal District can tell you exactly which ones apply to an address.

My affordability calculator includes taxes when it estimates your price range.

Exemptions that lower your bill

• General homestead for your primary home: $140,000 off for school taxes, statewide.
• Age 65 or older or disabled: an extra $60,000 off for school taxes, and your school taxes are frozen at the level of the year you qualify.
• Disabled veterans can get a partial exemption, or a full exemption at a 100% rating. My VA guide explains how.

You apply once with the appraisal district for the county the home is in. It's free, and you don't need to pay anyone to file it for you.

Which loans fit here

• FHA loans: the 2026 limit for a single-family home in Comal County is $557,750, the same as Bexar County. See my FHA guide.
• Conventional loans: as little as 3% down, with a 2026 limit of $832,750. See my conventional guide.
• VA loans: $0 down for eligible buyers, and no monthly mortgage insurance. See my VA guide.
• First-time buyers: TSAHC's statewide down payment help, which I offer, works here too. See my first-time buyer guide.
• USDA loans: not available inside New Braunfels. Some homes farther out may qualify. My USDA guide shows how to check an address.
• Rentals and second homes: if you're buying near the rivers to rent out, a DSCR loan qualifies you on the property's rent instead of your income.

What this means for your payment

On the same price, lower taxes mean a lower monthly payment, which can stretch how much home you qualify for. I build the exact taxes into every pre-approval so your price range is real.

Looking at more than one town? My areas page compares rates across the places I work most.