Bay Area buyers moving to Austin most often compare seven areas: West Lake Hills, Tarrytown and Mueller in central Austin, Lakeway on Lake Travis, and Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock to the north. The choice usually turns on drive time to the job center you use, lot size and home type, HOA or MUD structure, and a 2026 property tax rate of about 1.65 to 2.12 percent.

We are Ross Speed and Lindsay Neuren, the founders of The Speed & Neuren Group at Compass. This guide is for buyers relocating from San Francisco, the Peninsula and the South Bay, and it gives the area comparison, the tax math with every assumption labeled, and the tradeoffs worth knowing before you commit.

Where do Bay Area buyers live when they move to Austin?

The seven areas below are the ones Bay Area relocators ask us about most. The table compares them on features you can measure, so you can rank them against your own commute, space and budget.

Area	Free-flow drive minutes: Downtown / The Domain / Tesla Giga Texas	Homes and lots	ISD serving the area	2026 combined rate per $100 (taxing units)	HOA / MUD
West Lake Hills (Westlake)	12 / 20 / 32	Detached single-family homes; the city master plan calls for a one-acre minimum lot in its residential area	Eanes ISD	1.6543 (Travis County, Central Health, City of West Lake Hills, Eanes ISD, Travis County ESD 9, Travis County WCID No. 10)	HOAs vary by subdivision; WCID No. 10 in this stack; no MUD
Tarrytown (central Austin)	8 / 14 / 31	City of Austin lots; HOME rules allow up to three units on single-family-zoned lots and small lots down to 1,800 sq ft	Austin ISD	2.1211 (Travis County, Central Health, Austin Community College, City of Austin, Austin ISD)	Varies; read the deed restrictions in the title commitment
Mueller (central-east Austin)	8 / 15 / 22	Planned community on the 700-acre former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport: yard homes, row homes and apartments	Austin ISD	2.1211 (Same stack as Tarrytown)	Community-wide POA created by recorded covenants
Lakeway	34 / 37 / 46	Subdivisions around Lake Travis, a water-supply reservoir that LCRA operates to fluctuate	Lake Travis ISD	1.8157 (1.8688 inside Lakeway MUD) (Travis County, Central Health, City of Lakeway, Lake Travis ISD, Travis County ESD 6)	HOAs vary; parcels inside Lakeway MUD add 0.0531
Cedar Park	26 / 17 / 39	Suburban city spanning Williamson and Travis counties	Leander ISD serves much of the city; confirm by address	2.0200* (Williamson County, City of Cedar Park, Leander ISD, Austin Community College)	HOAs and MUDs vary by subdivision
Leander	33 / 24 / 46	Northern end of the CapMetro Red Line commuter rail (Leander Station)	Leander ISD	2.0594* (Williamson County, City of Leander, Leander ISD, Austin Community College)	HOAs and MUDs vary by subdivision
Round Rock	25 / 15 / 35	Home of Dell Technologies headquarters (One Dell Way)	Round Rock ISD	1.8966* (Williamson County, City of Round Rock, Round Rock ISD, Austin Community College)	HOAs and MUDs vary by subdivision

* Leander ISD’s and Round Rock ISD’s 2026 rates go to November 3, 2026 voter-approval elections.

How to read this table. Drive minutes are off-peak, free-flow estimates from OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, computed September 28, 2026, from each city’s municipal offices (Tarrytown: Exposition Blvd; Mueller: Aldrich St) to the Texas Capitol, The Domain (Century Oaks Terrace) and Tesla Giga Texas (1 Tesla Rd). Peak-hour trips take longer. Rates are 2026 adopted rates per $100 of taxable value, before exemptions, from the Travis County Tax Office and Williamson County Tax Office rate tables, Austin ISD’s September 24, 2026 board resolution and City of Lakeway Ordinance No. 2026-09-21-04 (Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock use the Williamson County portion). The units listed are the typical stack for that area; the TCAD or WCAD record for a specific parcel lists its exact taxing units. School district boundaries do not follow city limits, so verify any address with the district’s boundary tool. Sellers of property inside a MUD must give buyers a written notice with the district’s tax rate under Texas Water Code Section 49.452.

How do the central areas compare with the suburbs?

West Lake Hills, Tarrytown and Mueller sit within about 12 free-flow minutes of the Texas Capitol. West Lake Hills is its own city with one-acre planning for its residential area and the lowest combined 2026 rate in the table, at about 1.6543 per $100. Tarrytown and Mueller are inside the City of Austin, where HOME rules now allow up to three units on single-family-zoned lots, so the housing mix on a given street can change over time.

Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock sit closer to The Domain and the North Austin corridor than to downtown. Their 2026 Williamson County stacks run from about 1.8966 per $100 in Round Rock to 2.0594 in Leander (Leander ISD’s and Round Rock ISD’s 2026 rates go to November 3, 2026 voter-approval elections), and depending on the subdivision a home may also carry an HOA, a MUD or both. Leander is the northern end of the CapMetro Red Line commuter rail, and Round Rock is home to Dell Technologies’ headquarters.

Lakeway trades drive time for proximity to Lake Travis: about 34 free-flow minutes to the Capitol. Its 2026 stack is about 1.8157 per $100, or 1.8688 for parcels inside Lakeway MUD.

How much California income tax does a Bay Area household stop paying?

Generally all of it on income earned after you become a Texas resident, except income California still treats as California-source, because Texas has no state personal income tax. California taxes capital gains as ordinary income, so equity compensation and home-sale gains realized while you are a California resident still follow California rules. The table shows what California’s 2025 schedule charges at several income levels.

California taxable income (married filing jointly, 2025)	California income tax before credits	Texas state income tax
$300,000	$20,777	$0
$400,000	$30,077	$0
$500,000	$39,377	$0
$1,000,000	$89,532	$0
$1,500,000	$151,173 (includes $5,000 Behavioral Health Services Tax)	$0

Assumptions. Figures apply the 2025 California Tax Rate Schedule Y (married/RDP filing jointly) published by the Franchise Tax Board to taxable income, before exemption credits and other credits, and add the 1% Behavioral Health Services Tax on taxable income above $1,000,000. They exclude California SDI withholding (1.3% of all wages in 2026), federal tax and any part-year residency or California-source income rules, which can keep some income taxable in California after you move.

How much property tax will you pay on an Austin home?

Expect a 2026 combined rate of about 1.65 to 2.12 percent of taxable value before exemptions, depending on the taxing units that cover the address and the exemptions you qualify for. Texas school districts, cities and counties rely on property tax in place of a state income tax. California’s Proposition 13 limits the base property tax rate to 1% of assessed value. Assessed value is reset to the purchase price when a property sells, then rises each year by the lower of 2% or inflation. Voter-approved bond rates and local assessments are added on top of the 1% base, so the full rate varies by address.

Worked example: $1,000,000 homestead inside the City of Austin and Austin ISD

Taxing unit (2026 rate per $100)	Taxable value	Tax
Travis County (0.386210)	$800,000 after the county’s 20% homestead exemption	$3,089.68
City of Austin (0.579948)	$800,000 after the city’s 20% homestead exemption	$4,639.58
Central Health (0.132863)	$800,000 after Central Health’s 20% homestead exemption	$1,062.90
Austin Community College (0.103643)	$990,000 after ACC’s homestead exemption (1% of value, minimum $5,000)	$1,026.07
Austin ISD (0.9184)	$860,000 after the $140,000 school homestead exemption	$7,898.24
Total		$17,716.47 (about 1.77% of value)

Assumptions. Appraised value equals the $1,000,000 purchase price, the home qualifies as a residence homestead, and the owner is under 65. Exemptions applied: the $140,000 school exemption (Texas Tax Code Section 11.13(b)), the 20% homestead exemptions of Travis County, the City of Austin and Central Health, and Austin Community College’s exemption of 1% of value (minimum $5,000). A new owner’s homestead exemption starts in the first tax year the home is owned and occupied on January 1. TCAD notes a limited exception when the previous owner did not claim the exemption.

Rates are 2026 adopted rates: Travis County, Central Health, Austin Community College and the City of Austin from the Travis County Tax Office, and Austin ISD from its September 24, 2026 board resolution.

Two mechanics soften the Texas bill over time. After a homestead has qualified for a full year, its appraised value for tax purposes can rise no more than 10% a year, under Texas Tax Code Section 23.23. And every owner can protest the appraised value each spring; Ross’s early training as an appraiser is useful when a protest comes down to defensible comparable sales.

How far does Bay Area home equity go in Austin?

Further than in most of the Bay Area, measured by median price. The California Association of Realtors reported these September 2026 medians for existing single-family homes: $1,325,000 for the San Francisco Bay Area region, $2,054,000 in San Francisco, $2,327,500 in San Mateo County, $1,920,000 in Santa Clara County and $1,265,000 in Alameda County. Unlock MLS reported a September 2026 median residential price of $570,958 in the City of Austin, $497,400 in Travis County and $395,000 in Williamson County. The two reports define their home sets slightly differently, so treat the gap as a range, not a precise figure. Prices inside individual Austin areas vary widely, and we pull MLS comparables for any area you are considering.

What changes day to day after a Bay Area to Austin move?

Summers are long and hot, so shade, pool maintenance and HVAC efficiency show up in home tours and utility budgets. Peak-hour traffic concentrates on I-35, MoPac (Loop 1) and Loop 360, so the drive-time column above is a floor, not an average. Lake living works differently than Bay Area waterfront: LCRA operates Lake Travis to fluctuate, while Lake Austin is generally held within a small range. Property tax becomes a larger line in the household budget than it was under Proposition 13, while the state income tax line goes away.

How does The Speed & Neuren Group help Bay Area relocators?

Relocating across the country is different from buying across town, and we have built our process around that. Lindsay is a third-generation Austinite who focuses on relocation clients, so much of the work happens before you fly in: narrowing areas to fit your commute, space and budget, pulling the exact taxing units for each address, and lining up homes so a single trip is productive.

Ross’s early training as an appraiser means we price every option off the right comparables, not a generic per-square-foot average. We coordinate timing between your California sale and your Austin purchase, handle remote showings and video walkthroughs, and stay in your corner through closing and your first property tax protest.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Tax outcomes depend on your income sources, filing status, residency dates and the exact property. Consult a CPA or tax attorney before you make a relocation decision based on these figures.

Frequently Asked Questions About Moving to Austin from the Bay Area