Household incomes put Balcones Heights near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Poverty touches 45.9% of residents, against 13.8% across Texas. Balcones Heights grades C− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Balcones Heights: the gist
More than half of Balcones Heights works in San Antonio
753 working residents, 63%, have their main job in San Antonio, 2.4 miles away. That’s 32 times as many as work in Balcones Heights itself. The commute map ↓
Balcones Heights is where the jobs are
Balcones Heights has 2,452 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 4,000 people are in town, 46% more than the 2,700 who live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Balcones Heights than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Balcones Heights fell from 4,293 in 2013 to 2,452 in 2023, −43%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Most Balcones Heights residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Balcones Heights workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Balcones Heights’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Where Balcones Heights’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Balcones Heights is better than 23% of U.S. towns, #493 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Balcones Heights’ grade up (ahead of 97% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Balcones Heights could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily trip into Balcones Heights
Where Balcones Heights clocks in
63% of workers
5% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
In and out of Balcones Heights on a workday
On a workday 1,171 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 2,423 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Balcones Heights on a workday afternoon, 46% more than live here.
2.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Balcones Heights’ employers do
2,452 jobs are based in Balcones Heights.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Balcones Heights, 2013 → 2023: 4,293 → 2,452. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Balcones Heights’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Balcones Heights, by distance
About 21% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting to work from Balcones Heights takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Balcones Heights workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,273 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Balcones Heights is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,353 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 81% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 28.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, among the most of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 26.8% of Balcones Heights households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Balcones Heights’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Balcones Heights ranks: 3,731st of 4,969 U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,729 | Dixmoor IL | 2,951 | $45K | 23.6% | 8.3% | 2% | C− |
| 3,730 | Kingman KS | 2,884 | $49K | 10.4% | 4.4% | 38% | C− |
| 3,731 | Balcones Heights TX | 2,728 | $29K | 45.9% | 6.0% | 2% | C− |
| 3,732 | Tonopah NV | 1,910 | $47K | 4.9% | 0.0% | 34% | C− |
| 3,733 | Colstrip MT | 2,091 | $83K | 9.4% | 8.2% | 41% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Balcones Heights, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Balcones Heights: questions
What is the median household income in Balcones Heights?
$29,375 (±$9,151) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Balcones Heights?
45.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Balcones Heights?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Balcones Heights work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Antonio (63%, 2 mi), Austin (5%, 73 mi), Houston (3%, 191 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Balcones Heights walkable?
Balcones Heights is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 15.1 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Balcones Heights without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 27% of households have no car. 81% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Balcones Heights, from the people who make the trip.
More of Balcones Heights
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.