Open three real estate portals in three tabs and search Hollywood Park. You will get three different stories. Redfin reports a median sale price of $516,233 as of April 2026, down 15.7% year over year. Homes.com puts the median at $615,000 with an average sale price closer to $625,000, and notes that only one home closed on its platform in the last twelve months. A widely cited San Antonio brokerage guide describes the typical range as $350,000 to $550,000. Same town. Same month. A $265,000 spread.
The instinct is to pick the source you trust and move on. That is a mistake. The reason those numbers disagree is the same reason none of them will tell you what a specific home in Hollywood Park is actually worth. In a Town where fewer than thirty homes typically trade in a full year, the median is not a signal. It is noise dressed up as data.
The small-sample problem, in one table
Here is what the three portals are reporting at roughly the same moment in 2026.
| Source | Reported figure | Window | What it implies about "typical" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redfin | $516,233 median sale price, -15.7% YoY | April 2026 | Prices are falling |
| Homes.com | $615,000 median, $625,000 average, 1 sale on-platform | Trailing 12 months | Prices are stable and higher |
| Brokerage neighborhood guide | $350,000 to $550,000 typical | 2026 | Prices are lower than either portal shows |
Each figure is calculated correctly against the sales the source can see. The problem is arithmetic. When a town has a small number of transactions and enormous variance in what those transactions actually cover, moving one or two sales in or out of the sample can swing the reported median by six figures. A rebuilt Tudor on nearly an acre and an original-condition 1970s ranch on a quarter-acre are both "Hollywood Park sales," and both go into the same denominator.
For comparison, the San Antonio metro reported a median of $260,000 over the three months ending May 2026, with roughly 3,000 homes sold in a single month and about 73 days on market. That is a market where a median means something. Hollywood Park is not that market.
What the median is hiding
Three variables drive nearly all of the price dispersion inside the Town's roughly 3.4 square miles.
Lot size. Most Hollywood Park properties sit on half-acre or larger parcels, and it is not unusual to find full-acre lots with mature oak canopy. Recent listing narratives include a 2,261-square-foot home on a 0.69-acre corner lot backing a private greenbelt, and a roughly 3,200-square-foot residence on close to a half-acre. Two homes with similar interior square footage can differ by hundreds of thousands of dollars based on land alone.
Renovation era. Most of the housing stock was built between the 1960s and the 1990s, which means solid structural bones but very uneven interior condition. A 1970s original-condition ranch, a 2015 teardown-rebuild, and a "beautifully renovated" 2020s update with new roof, vinyl double-pane windows, updated water heater, and air-conditioned garage are all comparables on paper and are nowhere close in market value.
Utility connection. Parts of Hollywood Park still run on septic rather than municipal sewer. The Town issues septic permits directly. Two adjacent homes can differ meaningfully in operating cost, inspection burden, and buyer pool depending on which side of that line they sit on.
Together, these three variables produce a market where the phrase "median Hollywood Park home" describes almost no actual house you will tour.
The July-to-January tree window and other Town-specific frictions
This is where portal data stops being useful and local knowledge starts earning its keep. Hollywood Park is an incorporated Town with its own police department, its own council, and a code of ordinances that touches transactions in ways buyers rarely see coming.
The one most likely to surface at closing is Ordinance 943, which restricts tree cutting or trimming on private property to the window between July 1 and January 31 as an oak-wilt control measure. Commercial trimmers pay a $55 permit fee, must disinfect equipment before use, must paint every cut within thirty minutes, and must haul away all brush. Homeowners doing their own trimming still need a permit, though the homeowner permit is free.
The practical implication for a transaction:
- A February or April closing where the inspection report calls for tree work near the house means the seller cannot legally complete that work before funding.
- Buyer credits in lieu of pre-closing tree work are the norm, not the exception, for spring and early-summer contracts.
- Sellers who list in June often batch their tree work into the last weeks of the permitted window, which is why you sometimes see a flurry of activity in late January.
Other Town-issued items that catch out-of-market buyers:
- Alarm system permits are issued through the Hollywood Park Police Department, not through a county or third-party portal. Transferring an existing alarm at closing means a new HPPD application.
- Golf cart permits are also HPPD-issued if the home came with one.
- The Town runs its own animal control and maintains a Deer Committee with periodic fawn censuses. Free-roaming deer are a feature of daily life and a factor in landscaping decisions.
- The HOA is voluntary, and dues cover access to the community pool and clubhouse. Whether the current owner has been paying matters at transfer.
None of these items appear on a portal price history. All of them appear in a real transaction.
Three anchors that beat the median
If you are seriously comparing Hollywood Park to Shavano Park, Hidden Forest, or Stone Oak, replace the median with three anchors that survive the small-sample problem.
- Price per lot acre, not per square foot. Because interior size varies less than lot size inside the Town, and because buyers here are typically paying for land and canopy, backing into a per-acre number and comparing it against your target lot will get you closer to fair value than the ZIP-code median ever will.
- Renovation vintage, not build year. Ask when the roof, HVAC, windows, and kitchen were last done, not when the house was built. A 1972 build with a 2020 renovation trades closer to a new-build comp than to its era-matched neighbor.
- Sewer or septic, verified by permit. Do not accept the listing description. Pull the septic permit history from the Town, or verify sewer connection through the utility bill. The answer changes both your inspection scope and your resale audience.
Layer those three anchors over any Hollywood Park comp and the number the portal is quoting you will start to make sense, or reveal itself as irrelevant.
Where the tax math actually lands
Total effective property tax in Hollywood Park runs at roughly 2.1% of assessed value when the Town rate, Bexar County, North East ISD, and special districts are stacked together. On a $550,000 home with a homestead exemption, plan on an annual bill in the $10,500 to $11,500 range. That is a real line item, not a rounding error, and it belongs in your carrying-cost model before you argue with the median.
FAQ
Why do Hollywood Park sales counts vary so much between sources? Different portals pull from different MLS feeds and cut the geography differently. Some include only the Town proper (78232 within the incorporated boundary), others sweep in adjacent unincorporated pockets. When the true annual sales count is small, those boundary decisions swing the reported figures.
Is the market actually down 15.7% year over year? Redfin's April 2026 calculation reflects the specific homes that closed in its window. In a thin market, one or two atypical sales at either end of the price range can produce headline year-over-year swings that do not describe what any specific street is doing. Anchor on your target street's recent sales, not the Town-wide figure.
Does the tree-trim window really matter at closing? Yes, if inspection findings involve trees within striking distance of the roof. Between February 1 and June 30, no legal trimming can happen on the property. Plan for credits, not repairs, during that window.
What about the voluntary HOA? The pool and clubhouse are the main amenities. Dues are modest by regional standards and confirmation of paid-up status at closing is a routine but not automatic item.
If you are trying to reconcile portal numbers that do not add up, or you want a read on a specific Hollywood Park street rather than the Town-wide average, The Access Team works through comps the way a Hollywood Park closing actually unfolds. Get a Free Home Valuation and we will show you what your target lot is worth once the anchors that matter are applied.
