The Hill Country Towns Austinites Are Actually Moving To

At some point, a lot of Austinites stop refreshing the house listings and start looking at the land listings. Math is part of it. So is the traffic, the noise, and the feeling that the neighborhood you moved to for its character has been discovered by everyone else too.

For most people, the move is 30 to 60 minutes southwest, into the Hill Country towns that have been quietly absorbing Austin’s growth for a decade. Some of the people heading that way still commute into the city three days a week. Others work from home and want a porch that looks out on something better than a fence.

Here’s what six of those towns are really like. Since a lot of people end up building rather than buying once they get out there, this guide also covers what it takes to put a house on a piece of Hill Country land.

Dripping Springs

Dripping Springs is the one everyone talks about, and the numbers back it up. The city has roughly doubled in population since the 2020 census, making it one of the fastest-growing places in the Austin area. Drive west on 290 for 25 miles and you’ll see why. The town square has filled in with restaurants and shops. Jester King and Treaty Oak sit a few minutes off the highway. The surrounding hills hold a growing list of wineries and more than two dozen wedding venues, which is how the town earned its “Wedding Capital of Texas” tag. Hamilton Pool Preserve is close enough to be a casual Saturday plan.

Families come for Dripping Springs ISD. Everyone else comes for the fact that you can be at Barton Springs in 40 minutes and still watch the sun set behind actual hills.

Building here: Dripping Springs offers both subdivision lots and acreage, so you can pick your level of commitment. Most properties outside city limits run on septic and either a private well or a shared water system, and western Hays County sits under a groundwater conservation district with its own permitting rules. The trade-off is that Drip no longer feels like a secret. It feels like a town that knows everyone is looking at it.

Driftwood

Just south of Dripping Springs, Driftwood is for people who read the section above and thought, “still too much town.” It’s unincorporated, which means no city hall, square, or downtown. What it has instead is acreage, live oaks, and a handful of destinations Austinites already know by heart: the Salt Lick, Duchman Family Winery, and the Driftwood Golf & Ranch Club.

Driftwood attracts people who have stopped caring about walkability. You drive to everything. In exchange, you get privacy and space measured in acres instead of square feet.

Building here: Driftwood is land-first. Parcels tend to be large. Utilities run from the road and can be long and expensive. The road access and easements are what surprise first-time land buyers most. Know exactly how you’ll get from the county road to your front door before you fall in love with a view.

Wimberley

Wimberley has a personality the other towns on this list don’t, and it comes from two things: water and artists. Cypress Creek runs through the middle of town, the Blanco River wraps around it, and the Blue Hole and Jacob’s Well are the two swimming spots every Central Texan has an opinion about. The square is filled with galleries and boutiques.n the first Saturday of the month from spring through fall, Market Days turns the town into one of the biggest outdoor markets of local vendors in the state.

It’s 45 minutes to an hour to downtown Austin depending on which way you go, which puts it at the edge of a comfortable commute and squarely within range for anyone working remotely.

Building here: water is the whole conversation. Jacob’s Well has stopped flowing during recent droughts, wells in the area run deep, and drought-stage restrictions are a regular part of life. Out here, rainwater catchment is a core part of the design for many new builds rather than an optional upgrade, so it pays to plan for it from the first sketch.

What It Takes to Build Out Here

Three towns in, you’ve probably noticed the pattern. People out here tend to buy the land first and figure out the house second. That’s backwards from how most Austinites have ever bought a home, and that’s where the surprises live.

The first challenge is usually the land itself. Site prep can hit caliche and limestone almost immediately, which can change foundation costs. Utility runs from the road may stretch hundreds of feet. Road access and easements can affect where a home can actually sit.

Water and wastewater also need to be figured out early. Wells need permits, and in much of the Hill Country, a groundwater conservation district decides what you can drill and how much you can pump. Outside city limits, septic systems are common, with the appropriate system depending on factors such as soil and lot size. Ranch subdivisions often carry covenants dictating minimum square footage, exterior materials, and setbacks. None of this is consistent from one county to the next.

Then there’s time. A custom build in this part of Texas commonly runs 18  months from design to move-in. Engineering, permitting, septic design, utility coordination and construction all take time.

Terrain, water access, and county permitting differ enough from town to town that working with a custom home builder who knows the Texas Hill Country will save you months. A builder familiar with the area can identify the groundwater district, site considerations, and local requirements before construction gets underway.

Blanco

Keep going past Wimberley and you hit Blanco, which feels like what Dripping Springs was 15 years ago. The town wraps around the Old Blanco County Courthouse, the Blanco River runs through Blanco State Park a few blocks from the square. The surrounding farms turn purple every June for the Lavender Festival. It’s about an hour from downtown Austin.

Blanco is quieter and generally cheaper than the Hays County towns. The people who move here are usually done with the idea of a daily commute.

Building here: parcels get bigger, land gets rawer, and restrictions get lighter. You’ll find more properties with no covenants at all. That’s freedom, but it’s also a lot more decisions to make 

Johnson City

Johnson City is the farthest of the six, right around an hour out on 290, and the most rural. It’s LBJ country in the literal sense. The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park sits in town, Pedernales Falls State Park is 10 minutes east. The stretch of 290 heading west toward Fredericksburg has become one of the busiest winery corridors in Texas. 

Every December, the courthouse square gets wrapped in more than a million lights for Lights Spectacular, and half of Austin drives out to see it. This is where people go once a big lot stops being enough and they want a ranch.

Building here: true ranch land, well and septic as the default, with some of the longest lead times on the list. Contractors, materials, and inspectors are all traveling farther to reach you.

San Marcos

San Marcos is the odd one out, and that’s the point. It has Texas State University, which gives it a college-town energy none of the others have. It also has the San Marcos River, which holds a steady 72 degrees year-round and runs straight through downtown. It sits at the midpoint between Austin and San Antonio, about 35 to 45 minutes to either, with the widest range of price points of any town on this list.

San Marcos works for people who want a river and real amenities without the isolation that comes with Driftwood or Johnson City.

Building here: you can go either direction. There are infill lots and in-town options alongside acreage on the west side. Because the town sits right on the Balcones Escarpment, the terrain changes block to block. One lot is flat blackland, the one next door is limestone hillside.

The Six at a Glance

Every one of these towns is still within reach of Austin. What separates them is how much town you want around you, how far you’re willing to drive for it, and how much of the infrastructure you’re prepared to build yourself.

Town	County	Drive to downtown	Land or lots	Water	In three words
Dripping Springs	Hays	~40 min	Both	Well, shared systems, some city	Growing, polished, busy
Driftwood	Hays	~40 min	Acreage	Well and septic	Private, quiet, spread out
Wimberley	Hays	45–60 min	Both, acreage common	Well, catchment, drought rules	Artsy, river-centered, water-conscious
Blanco	Blanco	~60 min	Acreage	Well and septic	Slow, affordable, unhurried
Johnson City	Blanco	~60 min	Ranch land	Well and septic	Rural, historic, wine-adjacent
San Marcos	Hays	35–45 min	Both	City and well	Young, river-cooled, in-between

Visit on a weekday, not just a weekend. Every one of these towns reads differently on a Tuesday morning. That’s the version you’d be living in. Then you can go back to the land listings with a clearer head.

Featured photo via iStock user Amy Sparwasser.