Let me tell you our story
We have lived in Oak Hollow Park (Northeast San Antonio) since 2005. We moved-in the week after “Hurricane Katrina” swept through Texas causing so much devastation, fortunately, all outside of San Antonio. That’s why I started believing the San Antonio must be blessed, and has a “protective bubble” around it, protecting us from the damages, like Hurricanes, Tornados, excessive rain, and excessive drought, that have caused nearby cities, counties and states so much pain.
California to Texas
We were living in Downey, California (Los Angeles County), when after years of trying (fertility treatments), our baby girl was born. We put up our house for sale and decided to move to Texas. My wife’s parents reside in Mexico, so we felt the need to move closer to them. After much consideration, we chose to move to San Antonio. Since we were not familiar with San Antonio, we decided to do a short term lease while we browsed the neighborhoods, some established and some brand new neighborhoods. My wife wanted a “pool” and a “one-story” home. Also we were favoring an established neighborhood. Let the search begin.
Retired Realtor
For over 30 years I was a Realtor. I retired in 2019. My wife also worked as a Realtor but eventually changed paths and working as an administrative assistant for a private company. On week days, after she leaves to work, I have big decisions to make. I mean, after I have made her breakfast, her lunch, kissed her good bye, feed the dogs and drink some coffee, yeah, big decisions to make.
Do I walk around the neighborhood and get my steps in, and visit with other neighbors along the way, or do I go to the nearby YMCA (couple blocks away & free to seniors) or drive a mile to the Senior Center for some fun activities.
I used to get up early and walk our dogs, but about a year ago, they pulled me one way and my knees went another, it was quite painful. Now I wait until Saturday mornings (when my wife is home) to take the dogs to the nearby “dog park” in McAllister Park (about 2 miles from home).
Arrived in San Antonio
When we first arrived in San Antonio, my wife and I, attended real estate classes to update our real estate licenses, like we had done in California. We met several local Realtors, renewing their licenses and we talked about neighborhoods that they felt we would be most comfortable with for our family. Within 2 weeks, we made an offer on the only pool home available for sale (at that time) in Oak Hollow Park. Saying it again, Hurricane Katrina had just swept through Texas but San Antonio, was spared any damages.
In our first couple weeks after moving into the Oak Hollow Park neighborhood, we met several neighbors. Surprisingly, many were retired school teachers (I wondered if Teachers talk about Oak Hollow Park at their schools). We received several discount coupons in the mail, mostly restaurants, and we enjoy living so close to pretty much everything we could want. It was nice, pushing our daughter around the neighborhood in her stroller and meeting so many neighbors in our new cozy neighborhood.
Oak Hollow Park was built by Sitterle Homes
Oak Hollow Park, (formerly Pebble Forest) became a neighborhood in the fall of 1981, selling most of the 296 homes in 1982 and 1983. The final homes sold in 1984. The homes featured 3 bedrooms, 4 bedrooms and a few are 5 bedrooms. The For Sale prices in 1982 were in the $80,000 range and today, 40 years later, homes are selling in the $350,000 range and higher. A nice place to live and affordable compared to today’s prices.
We have resided in Oak Hollow Park for 19 years and are very comfortable.
We enjoy visiting the Alamo (18th-century Spanish mission – remembering the 1836 battle for Texas independence from Mexico), Six Flags, Sea World, the River Walk, San Antonio Zoo, Historic Market Square, San Antonio Aquarium, but most of all we appreciate the change in traffic, it is so much easier to drive around here in San Antonio than when we drove around in Los Angeles. In San Antonio, there’s a real “southern hospitality”, as most people we have met are polite and wave hello, or stop and say, hello.
19 years later
Our baby girl is now in her second year at the University of Incarnate Word, pursuing an acting career. It seems like the 19 years has flown by.
Long term homeowners; that is the history of Oak Hollow Park. We still have about 15 neighbors that have resided in Oak Hollow Park for over 40 years. When those neighbors talk about 40 years of changes, it is fun to listen. The “good old days” when they were bringing up their families and they would meet with groups of other neighbors for bar b q’s and potluck lunches. Before the cell phone craze, when people would sit and talk to the people around them.
In my opinion, I think we still need to make more time for neighbor-to-neighbor events, where we sit with each other at tables, face-to-face and have fun conversations. Today, even at family gatherings, it seems everyone is paying attention to their phones and not so much about the people around them.
Coffee and Conversation
Once a month my wife and I have coffee with about 20 neighbors, mostly seniors, where we (without many phone interruptions) sit, drink coffee, eat cookies and simply talk to catch up. It is a nice comfortable atmosphere, like back-in-the-day.
The Past 3 years
Over the last three years, we’ve had more families moving in and out of Oak Hollow Park than any other time that I can think of. Many of the families moving into the neighborhood seem to have children.
Fortunately, Oak Hollow Park is located in the North East Independent School District.
For those that are not aware, NEISD is a very good school district. My daughter did not attend the nearby Thousand Oaks Elementary School, because we had an opportunity ( through San Antonio’s School Choice option) to take her to Steubing Ranch Elementary School. Why not, Thousand Oaks Elementary School, which is a very good school, you might ask? Because Steubing Ranch Elementary School offered “Dual Language” classes so our daughter could learn to speak 2 different languages (Spanish and English). For middle school, our daughter attended “Omar Bradley Middle School” (when I was growing up, it was called Junior High), where she continued taking (about half the core classes) Dual Language classes. Our daughter went to “MacArthur High School” and now is at UIW. Fortunately, the local school schools do provide school bus rides to and from school and our daughter has taken many bus rides. By-the-way, our daughter is totally fluent in English and Spanish now. The “Dual-Language” classes were a great plan for us.
Oak Hollow Park has no Homeowner’s Association (HOA)
Even though Oak Hollow Park has a 6 foot high brick wall along the two main streets, Thousand Oaks and Jones Maltsberger, the Oak Hollow Park neighborhood is not a mandatory HOA subdivision. Oak Hollow Park does not have an Homeowner’s Association (HOA), but Oak Hollow Park does have a Neighborhood Association and our (not-mandatory) volunteer annual dues are $40 to maintain our common areas.
Our neighborhood has elected neighbors that form the OHPNA’s board members. Those board members collect the voluntary dues and perform tasks, plan neighborhood gatherings and make recommendation to keep the neighborhood maintained.
One of the coolest things about living in Oak Hollow Park is that every home is blessed with large shade trees, mostly Oak Trees. There are several neighborhoods, where the builders have mowed all the trees down to build the homes, then afterward they plant baby trees in the yard. Sitterle Homes has a reputation, to work around the mature trees.
Our neighbors are happy that our neighborhood is not too big and not to small.
Just under 300 homes, with no HOA cops, you own it, you maintain it. I believe our neighbors are friendly.
Neighbors can walk a rectangular path around our neighborhood in about 30 minutes, a little over a mile.
Location, Location, Location
Is Northeast San Antonio, where Oak Hollow Park is located considered a good safe place for families and Retirees to live? The answer is Yes, boasting an exceptionally low crime rate across all categories. Plus, we seemed to be blessed to miss catastrophes when they occur around our state and beyond.
The San Antonio International Airport is only 5 miles north from Oak Hollow Park. The ever-popular “Medical District” is a quick drive now that the construction for Wurzbach Parkway is finished. Since the completion of work done on the 281 freeway, getting to Sam’s Club now only takes 10 minutes from home.
Near us we have a variety of restaurants, HEB markets, Banks, just about every convenience you can think of nearby. All major freeways are only minutes away, Loop 1604, the 281 fwy, the 35 fwy, and a little further the 410 fwy and the 10 fwy. Except during “rush-hour-traffic” I can drive from one end of San Antonio, to the opposite end in about 40 minutes.
Inside the neighborhood and online
In our neighborhood, we compare and share funny stories and since many of us can’t imagine ever moving out of Oak Hollow Park, we share tips on how to pay lower property taxes and we look after the neighbors we know. Many are really good friends now.
We invite you to come and take a drive through our neighborhood. I bet you would love living in Oak Hollow Park as much as we do. And think about it when you get here, if you lived here, you’d be home.
– Les Earls