Sam Chapman

There are two waterfront communities in the Austin area I want to feature today. The first is The Reserve at Lake Travis. This is an exclusive waterfront and equestrian community west of Austin on Lake Travis.

There are currently 2 villas and 2 single-family homes for sale in The Reserve at Lake Travis. They range in price from $600,000 for a 2,487 square foot villa to just under $1.6 million for a home with 3,697 square feet on almost 1.3 acres. Neither has Lake Travis frontage, but the community has around 3.5 miles of Lake Travis frontage.

The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is nothing short of spectacular. Each of the 39 Lake Austin waterfront homes is stunning and each has a boat dock or boat house on a canal. There are currently 4 homes for sale in the Island at Mount Bonnell Shores. The range in price from $3.2 million to $4.2 million. The average price per square foot is $625.85, making this one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the Austin area.

The photo below is looking down on homes in The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores from the top of ount Bonnell. Pretty stunning, right?

I just posted numbers on my Austin real estate market stats page for sales of single-family homes in the Austin area for 2011. In the headline I used the word healthy - that is a relative term. What I could have said was the Austin market has not become as unhealthy as many other markets.

I broke down sales into different price categories. It was interesting to see even at the high end our home prices varied close to 1% or less with some price points going up and some going down.

If you bought a home in Texas last year, were living in it as your primary residence on January 1 of this year, you can apply for the homestead exemption in your county assuming your county still offers one. There are other exemptions as well. Getting the homestead exemption or other exemptions can save you money by reducing your property tax bill. Visit your county tax assessor's office website to learn more.

If you bought in Travis, Williamson or Hays County, the homestead exemption applications can be downloaded from my Homestead Exemption Applications page.

Interested in homes in Austin? Call me at 512-293-2422. Or click to search Austin homes online.

Austin and just to the west of Austin has two wonderful lakes and on each lake are some amazing Austin waterfront neighborhoods.

Rob Roy on the Lake is about 15 minutes west of downtown Austin and has homes with Lake Austin frontage. There are currently 6 homes on the market in Rob Roy on the Lake. They range in price from just under $1.9 million to just under $6 million.

Rivercrest is another Lake Austin waterfront community and it is a little more toward north-central Austin. There are currently 2 Rivercrest homes for sale and they are both priced just under $1.5 million.

The Coves on Lake Travis is farther west on Lake Travis and is in a very peaceful setting. As the name suggests, many homes in The Coves sit on coves with some having deeper water than others. There are 3 homes for sale in this Lake Travis waterfront neighborhood ranging in price from $625,000 to just under $12 million.

The most expensive home in any of these neighborhoods is in The Coves on Lake Travis. It is an amazing waterfront home with over 16,000 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 9 living rooms, a gym and a 4-car garage with a 2,000 guest suite over it and much more.

Interested in Austin waterfront homes? Call me at 512-293-2422.

I went to the Lakeway City Park yesterday to look at the Hurst Creek arm of Lake Travis. It is pretty pathetic looking as you will see by the viewing images below.

There should be 50+ feet of water here. The trickle in the creek is a result of half an inch of rain gthe day before.

These huge concrete blocks are what hold Hurst Harbor Marina slips in place. The marina has been moved across the lake to deeper water.

For this one I was down at the bottom of what once was a creek looking up at the cliffs. During a normal year the water would be just feet from the top of the cliffs.

This is a shot looking toward the mai body of the lake. You can see boat docks on dry ground and a boat ramp at the upper right.

This is the Pedernales River a few miles from where it enters Lake Travis. Again, the only reason there is water in it is from rain from a couple of days ago.

When full, the level of the water in Lake Travis is at 681 feet above mean sea level. Today it is closer to 626. That is 55 feet below full. The rain gague at the Lake Travis weather station recorded less than half its average annual rainfall last year. The year before was almost as bad.

Some people with Lake Travis waterfront homes have no water now. All public boat ramps are closed because they don't reach the water. Some watefront neighborhoods have deep enough water so their marinas are still open. Briarcliff, The Hollows and Costa Bella are among them.