Living in Lakeway, TX

Travis County

Lakeway is a master-planned lake community on the south shore of Lake Travis, about 25 miles west of downtown Austin, incorporated in 1974 on the site of a 2,700-acre ranch. Its identity is built around water and golf: Lake Travis frontage, marinas (including the Rough Hollow Yacht Club), and a long-established country-club-and-golf-course culture, layered with genuine, Census-documented senior appeal -- 24.38% of residents are 65 or older and the median age is 50, both well above national norms, consistent with a lake-country retiree and second-home draw distinct from a typical Austin-area bedroom suburb. That identity comes at a real price: the citywide median home sale price ran $840,040 as of May 2026, up 4.7% year over year, putting Lakeway well above both the Austin-area and national medians. Travis County's own effective property tax rate runs 1.54%, with the true combined city-plus-county-plus-school rate for a specific Lakeway address likely landing somewhere in a 1.65%-2.5% range depending on jurisdiction -- a precise Lakeway-specific combined figure was not confirmed this pass, so treat any total-tax-burden estimate as directional until verified for a specific property. Families and retirees alike are drawn by Lake Travis ISD, which holds a 9/10 GreatSchools rating, an A+ Niche grade, and a 98% graduation rate districtwide (individual campus ratings vary, from Lake Travis Elementary's more modest 5/10/B up to Lake Pointe Elementary's 9/10/A+), and by Baylor Scott & White Medical Center -- Lakeway, a 106-bed, Magnet-recognized, in-city hospital with cardiology, neurosurgery, GI, orthopedic, and labor-and-delivery services -- a genuine local healthcare anchor rather than a distant reliance on Austin proper. CrimeGrade.org rates Lakeway safer than both the Texas and national averages, though a second source (NeighborhoodScout) returned a less favorable and, in this session's research, somewhat internally inconsistent-looking characterization -- disclosed rather than resolved by picking the more flattering number. Lakeway's defining natural-hazard reality is not hurricane risk -- it sits well inland -- but genuine, historically severe Hill Country flash flooding: Lake Travis is a Colorado River reservoir fed substantially by the Pedernales, and the lake has recorded dramatic, documented surges tied to Hill Country storm systems going back to 1929, as recently as July 2026, when the Pedernales reached its highest level since 1979 and Lake Travis reached full pool (opening its floodgates) for the first time since 2019.

Explore Lakeway in depth

• Moving to Lakeway: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Lakeway
• Housing in Lakeway
• Taxes & Insurance in Lakeway
• Climate in Lakeway
• Schools & Families in Lakeway
• Healthcare & Safety in Lakeway
• Pros and Cons of Living in Lakeway
• Retiring in Lakeway

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Retirees and second-home buyers genuinely drawn to a documented lake-country, golf-and-water lifestyle near Austin, and families prioritizing a top-rated school district and an in-city full-service hospital who can afford a real premium over other Austin-area suburbs.

Maybe not for you if: Affordability-focused buyers should look elsewhere in this Austin-area batch (Buda or Cibolo, for example) -- Lakeway's $840,040 median sale price puts it well out of reach for a first-time-homebuyer budget. Anyone specifically risk-averse to flash flooding should weigh Lake Travis and Pedernales River hazard history seriously and confirm a specific property's flood-zone status directly; this is a real, dated, recurring regional risk, not a hypothetical one.