San Antonio residents are feeling the squeeze as everyday prices climb, and local voices like Luis Velazquez and Ana Nuñez are describing real tradeoffs at the grocery store and laundromat. University of the Incarnate Word economist Taylor Collins outlines how national inflation numbers and local policy choices could deepen the strain. This piece walks through what’s rising, where small relief exists, and how people here are coping.

Shoppers around the city are cutting back on small pleasures and nonessentials because basics are becoming harder to afford. “Some things you got to take away, you know, make up for the inflation,” Luis Velazquez said as he left a grocery store on the South Side, naming children’s toys as one example of things getting pushed off the list. He added, “Sometimes you got to tell them, ‘Well, can’t get that right now. We got to put that towards gas, electric, water bill,’ you know, stuff like that.”

Those individual choices track with national price trends. The Consumer Price Index for April 2026 showed a 3.8% rise year over year, and energy costs have been a major driver, with gasoline up 28.4% across types. That kind of fuel shock filters into everything from home bills to the cost of hauling goods to store shelves.

Taylor Collins, chairman of the University of the Incarnate Word Department of Economics, warns the pain is cumulative. “For a year-over-year, 3.8 might not sound like a scary number, but when you compound it over the last five years of inflation we’ve been experiencing, that’s where the hit really starts to become apparent,” he said. Small annual moves add up fast when households have already stretched budgets thin.

San Antonio could see extra local pressure from utility and tax changes already under discussion. City leaders are weighing a property tax rate adjustment for the first time in decades while the San Antonio Water System has floated rate increases, and conversations about energy costs through CPS Energy remain on the table. Each possible hike raises the prospect that what people pay for housing and services might increase even beyond national inflation.

There are a few pockets of relief in the housing market, however. Recent data show multifamily rents fell 3.4% over the last year to an average around $1,251, and median home prices dipped slightly to just under $310,000. Those numbers offer breathing room for some renters and buyers, but Collins stresses the context matters.

“Even though we’re seeing a little relief there, it’s relief from a very high starting point,” Collins said, pointing out that housing costs had already surged after the pandemic. For many households, any decline still leaves prices well above pre-boom levels, so rent relief may not translate into financial comfort for those stretched thin.

Income and poverty metrics complicate the picture. A report that ranked San Antonio among the more affordable metros also estimated a single adult would need just over $90,000 to live comfortably here. In contrast, the area median income for a single person was under $68,000 in 2025, and the city ranked near the top for poverty among the largest metro areas, underscoring a gap between cost and local pay.

That gap shows up in the stories of people working on the margins. Ana Nuñez sold fruit cups out of the back of an SUV with her mother outside a South Side laundromat and offered a blunt take on the tradeoffs people face. She said San Antonio is “definitely” affordable compared to other cities, but added, “it’s also like you have to put into perspective that San Antonio doesn’t pay much.” Nuñez, who studied at the University of Texas at Austin, said many of the jobs on offer pay around $15 to $18 an hour and that friends often leave town to seek better opportunities, noting they “don’t move to San Antonio to … get their dream job. They usually move out, unfortunately.”

Collins also flagged expectations as a driver of future prices, noting how anticipation can become self-fulfilling. “Something we know in economics is that people respond to future expectations,” he said. That dynamic means if businesses and consumers expect costs to rise, their behavior can help push prices higher over time.

For people who can shift money aside, Collins recommends building savings; for those already at the limit, he advises looking into assistance options. “If you can prepare yourself, that is always the preferable place to go,” he said. “If you’re in an emergency situation, that’s what the programs are available for.”