Lakeway

The feel of Lakeway

Lakeway started in the 1960s as a resort — an airstrip, a golf course, and weekend houses on the south shore of Lake Travis — and it never fully shed that DNA, which is exactly its charm. Today it’s a full city of about 20,000 with its own police department, hospital, and city hall, but the rhythm still bends toward the water. People here own boats, or have neighbors with boats, or plan their week around a Thursday evening cruise out of Rough Hollow Yacht Club.

There are really two Lakeways, and we walk every buyer through the distinction. “Old Lakeway” — the streets off Lakeway Boulevard and Lohmans Crossing, wrapped around the Live Oak and Yaupon golf courses — is 1970s–90s housing on big, tree-heavy lots with no HOA in many sections and a pleasantly unpolished character. Then there’s the newer arc: Rough Hollow, Serene Hills, and The Peninsula, master-planned communities from the 2000s onward with resort amenity centers, tighter architectural control, and modern floor plans. Old Lakeway buyers get land, trees, and value; new Lakeway buyers get open kitchens and lazy rivers. Neither is wrong — they’re just different purchases, and the tax treatment differs too (more below).

Who suits Lakeway: families committed to Lake Travis ISD, remote and hybrid workers, boaters, golfers, and anyone who decided the daily downtown grind isn’t worth trading sunsets over the lake. Who doesn’t: five-day-a-week downtown commuters. Be honest with yourself about that before you buy, not after.

Schools

Lakeway sits in Lake Travis ISD, one of the two flagship districts of West Austin (the other being Eanes, over in Westlake). Lake Travis High School — home of the Cavaliers and a storied football program — is the single high school, which gives the whole district an everyone-rows-together identity. Lakeway and Serene Hills elementaries serve most of the city, feeding Hudson Bend and Lake Travis middle schools; Rough Hollow Elementary opened to serve the newer south side.

The honest picture: LTISD has grown fast, and boundary adjustments have happened as new campuses open — verify current feeder patterns for any specific address rather than trusting a listing. Academically the district performs very well, a notch behind Eanes on raw rankings but with newer facilities and, for many families, a more relaxed culture.

The commute

Plan on 35–55 minutes to downtown Austin in real traffic, via RM 620 to Bee Cave then Hwy 71/Southwest Parkway or Bee Cave Road. There is no fast backdoor; RM 620 is the artery and it’s carrying more than it was designed for, though widening work has been grinding along for years. The Domain and the Apple campus run 40–60 minutes up RM 620 around the lake or back through town — genuinely far. Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave is 10–15 minutes and covers most shopping needs.

The pattern we see: Lakeway works beautifully for people commuting downtown two or three days a week, and it wears on people doing it five. The presence of Baylor Scott & White Lakeway, good local dining, and the lake itself means many residents structure whole weeks without crossing RM 620 at rush hour.

Property taxes and MUDs

This is where the old/new Lakeway split matters financially. Most of old Lakeway is served by city utilities and the Lakeway MUD, whose rate has fallen to nearly negligible levels after decades of debt paydown — effective rates there run roughly 1.7–1.9%. Rough Hollow and several newer sections sit in younger MUDs still servicing infrastructure debt, and all-in effective rates there commonly land around 2.2–2.5% per recent tax-year data (verify the exact district and current rate on any property — it’s line-item visible on the tax bill).

On a $900K home, that spread is roughly $400+ a month. It doesn’t make newer sections a bad buy — you’re getting newer infrastructure and amenities — but it should be priced into your comparison, and we model it for clients on every showing sheet.

What you’ll find

Old Lakeway: 1970s–90s ranches and two-stories in limestone and cedar on quarter-acre to full-acre lots, many backing golf or greenbelt, typically $550K–$900K depending on updates. Rough Hollow and Serene Hills: 2010s–2020s stucco-and-stone hill country contemporary, 2,500–4,500 square feet, roughly $700K–$1.5M. Waterfront and deep-water-cove properties on Lake Travis run from $1.5M into the several millions, with value driven heavily by whether the dock survives drought pool levels — a nuance that separates experienced lake buyers from disappointed ones. Citywide, the median sale price has been running around $725K per Redfin/Zillow public market data, mid-2026 (verify current).

One more honest note: Lake Travis is a flood-control reservoir and its level swings 30+ feet across drought cycles. Ask about historical water lines, dock permits through the LCRA, and what your specific cove looks like at low pool. We keep those records handy because listing photos are always taken in the good years.

New construction in Lakeway

Lakeway is largely built out at its core, so new construction concentrates in Rough Hollow’s final phases and Serene Hills, plus scattered custom builds on remaining view lots and teardown sites in old Lakeway. Builders active in recent phases have included Drees, Highland Homes, Taylor Morrison, and Scott Felder, with custom builders handling the estate lots — rosters rotate as sections close out, so current availability changes quarter to quarter.

If you’re considering a builder purchase here, remember that builder contracts are written by the builder’s attorneys, for the builder — earnest money terms, escalation clauses, and design-center pricing all reward scrutiny. We review those contracts, negotiate what’s negotiable (often more than buyers assume, especially on inventory homes), and manage inspections at each construction phase so surprises surface before drywall, not after closing.