Austin, golf and lakes, oh my! Horseshoe Bay Resort

Last weekend, we were invited to a birthday celebration down in Austin.  It was an epic party that involved this cool, renovated 1960’s era Airstream trailer.  The weather was only in the low 90’s and with the shade of the trees it made for a beautiful night out.   We partied the night away and even made some new friends that were on a 3 week RV trip through the US from Switzerland.  We were glad that Austin was on their places to visit.

We spent the night at the Hotel San Jose on S. Congress.  Previously we had only visited this hotel for the delicious white sangria they have on the patio.  It has that Austin chic feel without trying.  It is definitely one of my favorite places in Austin.

Hotel San Jose – the view on our patio

After a great breakfast on Sunday we were back on the road home.  Ya’ll get it, the Cowboys were playing at 7:30 that night.  Even though we had a deadline to be back in Dallas I talked Paul into taking the long way home so we could go through Marble Falls and also to check out a place called Horseshoe Bay.  He had shared with a friend at the party that we were checking out possible 2nd home/retirement places that had golf and lakes.

Horseshoe Bay Resort is a solid hour from Austin, but I am telling you it is totally worth the drive.  This place has now jumped to the top of my list.  They have 3 Robert Trent Jones designed courses set among the rock outcroppings, the rolling hills and the lake views are sublime.   Right down the road you have Marble Falls that has quite a few restaurants, our favorite hardware stores, which are a must, and an HEB!  While not Central Market, HEB’s gourmet grocery store, HEB is pretty cool as well.

Horseshoe Bay (HSB) is made up of multiple communities or neighborhoods.  Each seems to have their own flavor and amenities.  Some have community pools, gyms and golf clubhouses.  While driving around we happened upon an open house.  The first thing we noticed was the group of deer enjoying the shade and grass just a few feet away under some trees.  Once inside we met the realtor and she was a wealth of information.    There are many lots available, new homes, townhouses and condos in pretty much any price range.   We saw listings for less than $100k up to the multi-millions.   The membership costs are on a tiered system depending on your desires and what items you will use, such as social, pools, tennis, golf, etc.  The current tax information I was able to locate was around $1.75/per $100 of value.  There were options to freeze property taxes at age 65. Texas has no state income tax so the property tax can get expensive.  In the Dallas area it runs over $2.00/per $100 of value so not too bad in HSB.

Before we left we the area we decided to take a look at some of the amenities.  They have a very nice hotel with a resort style pool.  There is a fine dining option called “The Yacht Club”,  that has a view of the lake, marina and another resort style pool.  The beauty of the Texas Hill Country with all these amenities makes it a look like a great place to call home and it’s still within an hour of Austin!  We are going to be back for a longer stay in the near future, so stay tuned.