Why Luxury Buyers Are Still Moving to Austin — And Where They’re Actually Landing

By Natasha Antonioni, The Council Real Estate Group at Compass With market analysis from Holly McCormick and Albina Rippy, CPA

The short answer: Luxury buyers keep choosing Austin because the financial case survives scrutiny — no state income tax, a diversified employment base beyond software, and a high-end housing supply that stays structurally tight. In June 2026, 333 Austin-area homes sold above $1 million, a 31.6% jump in volume over June 2025, at a median of $1,375,000 and just 27 days on market. But the more useful question is where that money lands. Increasingly, it’s the Eanes ISD corridor west of MoPac — Westlake, Rollingwood, Barton Creek, and Cuernavaca — where a coastal buyer’s specific priorities (land, elevation, schools, privacy, architectural quality) all exist in the same nine square miles.

Key Takeaways

• Volume is up, urgency is down. Austin’s $1M+ segment posted 333 sales in June 2026 — up 31.6% year over year — while median price held flat. That’s a healthy market, not a frothy one.
• The tax story is real but incomplete. Texas charges no state income tax. It also charges high property tax. The net advantage depends entirely on your income profile, and it is far larger for earners than for retirees.
• The 2026 homestead exemption changed the math. Texas Proposition 13, passed in November 2025, raised the school-district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000.
• Westlake behaves differently than Austin. The metro has rebuilt inventory. The Eanes corridor has not — because they stopped making land in 78746 forty years ago.
• Coastal buyers aren’t buying square footage. They’re buying a feeling. The homes that trade fastest here are the ones designed with intention, not the ones with the longest feature list.

The Question Behind the Question

Every quarter, someone publishes a piece arguing Austin’s moment has passed. Too crowded. Too expensive. Too far from what it used to be.

And every quarter, the closing data says something else.

We are not going to spend this article defending Austin. The city has real problems — traffic, infrastructure strain, a cost curve that has priced out people who built the culture everyone moved here for. Those are legitimate. We live here. We see them.

What we want to answer is the question our clients are actually asking, which is more precise than “is Austin still good.” It is: given what I’m giving up, does the math work — and if it does, where specifically should I be looking?

Here is our answer, with the numbers behind it.

1. The Tax Case, Honestly Told

Analysis by Albina Rippy, CPA

Texas has no personal state income tax. That is the headline, and it is true.

For a household earning $1.5 million in California — where the top marginal rate reaches 13.3% — the annual difference is not a rounding error. It is a second mortgage. Over a fifteen-year hold, it can fund the house.

But the version of this story that circulates online is incomplete in two ways, and we would rather you hear the complete version from us than discover it at closing.

First: Texas property taxes are substantially higher. California’s Proposition 13 caps assessed-value growth and keeps effective rates near 0.76%. Texas rates run considerably higher, and in the 78746 taxing jurisdictions the combined levy — Travis County, Eanes ISD, municipal, and special districts — means your annual carrying cost on a $3 million home is a real line item, not a footnote. (Verify the exact rate for any specific address with the Travis Central Appraisal District before you underwrite.)

Second: the relief package matters more than most agents mention. Texas voters approved Proposition 13 in November 2025, raising the mandatory school-district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. Homeowners 65 or older, or with a qualifying disability, received an additional exemption increase from $10,000 to $60,000 — a combined $200,000 shielded from school-district taxation. Filing also activates the 10% annual cap on appraised-value increases for your homestead, which in an appreciating market frequently outperforms the exemption itself over a long hold.

Where this nets out: the tax advantage is largest for high-earning households still generating W-2 or business income, and smallest for asset-rich retirees drawing from investments in a state that wasn’t taxing that income aggressively anyway. If you are relocating a business alongside the household, the case strengthens further — Texas’s business personal property exemption rose from $2,500 to $125,000 in the same 2026 package.

Run your own numbers. If you want ours, we’ll build the comparison for your actual income profile before you tour a single house. That is not a standard service. It should be.

→ Related: Relocation Guide

2. The Economy Diversified While Everyone Was Watching Tech

The Austin story most people carry in their heads is from 2021: Tesla, Oracle, Apple, a stampede of software workers, bidding wars.

That story is four years stale, and the update is more interesting.

The current momentum in Central Texas is less about importing software jobs and more about building physical infrastructure — semiconductors, AI hardware, advanced materials, biotech manufacturing, space and defense communications. Samsung’s Taylor investment anchors a supply chain that did not exist here a decade ago.

This matters to a luxury buyer for one reason: concentration risk. A metro dependent on a single industry’s hiring cycle is a metro where high-end real estate is a leveraged bet on that industry. A metro with software, hardware, manufacturing, healthcare, state government, and a research university is a metro where the demand floor under $3 million homes is structurally sturdier.

You are not buying a house. You are buying fifteen years of a local economy. Diversification is the whole point.

3. What the 2026 Numbers Actually Say

Market analysis by Holly McCormick

Let’s separate the metro from the micro-market, because conflating them is how buyers make expensive mistakes.

Austin metro, $1M+ segment (June 2026):

Source: Eleven Oaks Realty, June 2026 Austin Luxury Price Report (Travis, Williamson, Hays Counties)

Read that carefully, because it is the single most misunderstood dataset in Austin right now. Volume surged 31.6% while price held flat. That is not a cooling market and it is not an overheating one. It is a market that cleared. Buyers who spent two years waiting for a signal got one, and they transacted — without the panic premium of 2021.

Within that data, price tier matters enormously. The $1.2M–$1.39M band saw the tightest conditions in June, with a median of roughly 15 days on market and buyers landing within about 2.2% of asking. Above $1.4M, homes took a median of 33 days and closed around 3% under asking. The negotiating environment changes materially every $200,000. Any agent quoting you one set of market conditions for “Austin luxury” is quoting you an average that describes nobody’s actual transaction.

Sellers, the corollary is unforgiving: homes that require a price reduction before going under contract are averaging roughly 8% off the adjusted price. The first fourteen days of pricing accuracy are worth more than every marketing dollar that follows.

→ Related: Current Market Reports

4. Why So Much of This Money Ends Up West of MoPac

Here is the pattern we see in our own book of business, and it is consistent enough to be predictive.

Buyers relocating from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York arrive with a checklist they often haven’t articulated to themselves: land, elevation, mature canopy, privacy, a short drive to a real downtown, and schools they don’t have to pay $45,000 a year for.

There are not many places in Texas where those six things overlap. The Eanes ISD corridor is one of them.

• West Lake Hills — an independent city with its own government, police department, and strict deed restrictions that have deliberately suppressed density for decades. Limestone ridges, long views, large lots, roughly ten to fifteen minutes to downtown.
• Rollingwood — closest to downtown, generally the most attainable entry into full Eanes eligibility, and a neighborhood where 1960s and ’70s originals have been renovated into deeply individual homes.
• Barton Creek — the most dramatic topography and the largest estate parcels, including gated enclaves and multi-acre tracts along the escarpment.
• Cuernavaca (78733) — the corridor most buyers overlook and the one we watch most closely. Lake Austin proximity, generous lots, Eanes eligibility on qualifying streets, at a basis that has not yet caught up to 78746.

The critical caveat, and we will say this until we’re hoarse: Eanes ISD boundaries do not follow ZIP code lines. The district serves most of 78746 and significant portions of 78733, but some streets split between Eanes and Austin ISD. We have watched buyers pay an Eanes premium for a home that was never zoned to Eanes. Verify every address through the district’s SchoolSearch tool and TCAD before you write an offer. If you’re working with us, we do it for you — twice.

→ Go deeper: The Eanes ISD Guide · 78733 vs. 78746 · Westlake Austin Complete Guide · Cuernavaca

5. Scarcity Is the Whole Argument

Austin metro rebuilt its inventory. Active listings across the region climbed from near-zero in 2022 to well over ten thousand.

The Eanes corridor did not participate in that recovery, and it structurally cannot.

There is no meaningful developable land left inside the district. Municipal deed restrictions in West Lake Hills and Rollingwood prevent the density that would create new supply. Every additional household that wants into Eanes is competing for a housing stock that is effectively fixed.

That is the entire long-term appreciation thesis, and it does not require any assumption about tech hiring, migration rates, or interest rates to hold. It requires only that Eanes remains one of the top-performing districts in Texas and that Austin remains a city people want to live near.

Both look like safe bets.

6. The Part Almost Nobody Writes About: What These Homes Need to Feel Like

Natasha Antonioni

I have spent my career on the design side of this business, and I will tell you what the market data cannot.

Coastal buyers do not relocate for square footage. They relocate for a life they have already imagined in detail — and they will walk out of a technically superior house that doesn’t match the picture in their head.

I watch it happen at showings constantly. A buyer from Santa Monica tours two homes on the same street. One has better bones, better light, a better lot. The other has been prepared with intention — the entry tells you something, the sightlines resolve, the materials have a point of view, the house knows what it is. The second one gets the offer. Every time.

This is the premise of my book, Intentional Design: Design Your Home to Manifest Your Goals and Dreams, and it is not a soft idea. It is the most reliable pricing lever we have found in this market. A Westlake home prepared with genuine design intelligence — not staged with rented furniture, designed — outperforms its comparables on both price and days on market with a consistency that surprises people who think of design as decoration.

For buyers relocating here, that same principle runs in reverse. The house you should be looking for is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one whose structure can hold the life you are actually moving here to build.

→ Related: Design & Staging

7. Austin vs. the Other Contenders

Miami, Nashville, Scottsdale, and Denver all appear on the same shortlists. Here is the honest comparison.

No city wins on every row. Austin wins for a specific buyer: the one who needs top-tier public schools, wants land and elevation, and is still actively building something. If you are optimizing purely for tax efficiency and climate, Miami or Scottsdale may serve you better. We would rather tell you that now.

8. The Honest Downsides

Because a page that only sells is a page nobody trusts.

• Property taxes will surprise you. Model them at your actual purchase price, not the current owner’s assessed value.
• Insurance is not what it was. Wildfire risk in the Hill Country has changed the underwriting environment. West Lake Hills participates in Firewise and offers home-hardening assessments — take them up on it.
• Summer is genuinely long. Late June through September is a different relationship with the outdoors than coastal California.
• You will drive. Westlake is large-lot, car-dependent living. If you want walkability, look at Tarrytown or Clarksville instead, and accept the school trade-off.
• The culture has changed. Anyone selling you 2013 Austin is selling you something that no longer exists. What exists now is still worth moving for — but go in clear-eyed.

9. What To Do With This

If you’re buying: Get your financing structure resolved before you tour. Jumbo underwriting in this market rewards preparation. Then verify school zoning at the address level, model taxes at purchase price, and — critically — get inside the off-market inventory. A meaningful share of Westlake’s top-tier transactions never reach the MLS. → How to Win a Home in Westlake

If you’re selling: Your first fourteen days are the whole negotiation. Price to the sub-tier your home actually sits in, not to the metro average, and prepare the property with real design intention before a single photo is taken. → Selling Your Home

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are luxury buyers still moving to Austin in 2026? Three durable reasons: no Texas state income tax, an employment base that has diversified well beyond software into semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and biotech, and a high-end housing supply that remains structurally constrained in the most desirable corridors. In June 2026, Austin-area sales above $1 million rose 31.6% year over year to 333 closings, with median days on market falling to 27.

Is Austin luxury real estate still a good investment in 2026? The metro-wide luxury market has normalized — volume is strong, prices are stable, and buyers have negotiating room they didn’t have in 2021. The stronger long-term case sits in supply-constrained sub-markets like the Eanes ISD corridor, where no meaningful developable land remains and municipal deed restrictions prevent new density.

How much does a household actually save moving from California to Texas? It depends entirely on income profile. Texas has no state income tax versus California’s top marginal rate of 13.3%, but Texas property taxes are substantially higher — California’s Proposition 13 holds effective rates near 0.76%. High-earning households with active W-2 or business income see the largest net benefit. Asset-rich households drawing primarily from investments see a smaller one. The Council builds this comparison for clients before they tour.

Where do wealthy people live in Austin? The highest-value residential market in the metro is the 78746 ZIP code — Westlake Hills, Rollingwood, Barton Creek, Rob Roy, Lost Creek, and Davenport Ranch — anchored by Eanes ISD. Tarrytown and Pemberton Heights (78703) serve buyers who want central, walkable luxury. Lake Travis and Spanish Oaks serve waterfront and gated-estate buyers.

Is all of Westlake in Eanes ISD? No. Eanes serves most of 78746 and significant portions of 78733, but boundaries do not follow ZIP lines and some streets split between Eanes and Austin ISD. Verify every address through the district’s SchoolSearch tool and the Travis Central Appraisal District before making an offer.

What is the Texas homestead exemption in 2026? Texas Proposition 13, approved by voters in November 2025, raised the mandatory school-district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. Homeowners 65 or older or with a qualifying disability receive an additional $60,000, for a combined $200,000. Filing also activates a 10% annual cap on appraised-value increases for your homestead. File Form 50-114 with your county appraisal district — it is free and one-time.

How competitive is the Westlake market right now? It varies sharply by price tier. Across the metro’s luxury segment in June 2026, homes between $1.2M and $1.39M saw a median of about 15 days on market with buyers paying within roughly 2.2% of asking, while homes above $1.4M took a median of 33 days and closed around 3% under asking. Above $5 million, the buyer pool narrows and off-market activity increases substantially.

Are there off-market luxury homes in Westlake? Yes, and they represent a significant share of transactions above $5 million. Sellers at that level frequently prefer privacy over exposure. Access comes through agent relationships, not search portals. The Council maintains a pre-market network in the Westlake community and Compass Private Exclusives access.

Which Austin neighborhood is best for a California relocation? West Austin communities tend to feel most natural to California transplants — West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, Barton Creek, Bee Cave, and Lakeway — because they offer the large lots, top-rated schools, elevation, and access to nature that mirror the most prestigious Southern California suburbs.

Why does design matter so much in this market? Because relocating buyers are purchasing an imagined life, not a spec sheet. In our experience, Westlake homes prepared with genuine design intention consistently outperform comparable properties on both price and days on market. That principle is the basis of Natasha Antonioni’s forthcoming book, Intentional Design.

About The Council Real Estate Group

The Council is three specialists at Compass RE Texas, serving Westlake, Cuernavaca, and the Eanes ISD market.

Natasha Antonioni brings the design lens — a former celebrity hairstylist featured in Vogue who built a second career in interior design and luxury real estate, and the author of Intentional Design: Design Your Home to Manifest Your Goals and Dreams. Her relationships with Austin architects, builders, and craftsmen shape how our listings are prepared and how our buyers evaluate what they’re seeing.

Holly McCormick brings the negotiation and community lens — two decades in 78746, and a street-by-street knowledge of value drivers, boundary nuance, and off-market inventory that no algorithm reproduces.

Albina Rippy, CPA brings the financial lens — investment analysis, tax modeling, and pricing precision grounded in an accounting background that is genuinely rare in residential brokerage.

Three specialists. One standard.

Ready to run the numbers on your relocation? Schedule a consultation · (512) 988-1741 · 2500 Bee Cave Rd, Westlake TX 78746

The Council Real Estate Group at Compass RE Texas. TREC License #0593946. Market data cited from Eleven Oaks Realty June 2026 Austin Luxury Price Report, Unlock MLS, and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Tax information is general in nature and not a substitute for advice from your own CPA or tax attorney regarding your specific circumstances.