In Lago Vista as of October 16, 2026, builders hold 15.5% of the homes for sale, so for most owners the neighbor’s resale is the competition. Near Lakeside at Tessera and The Hollows a buyer’s other tour may be a finished new house, and none of the homes for sale under $300,000 is a builder listing.
Sources: Unlock MLS, pulled October 16, 2026.
The figures on this page describe the public side of this market, the sales that were listed in the MLS. Above $1M in the Austin area, a large share of sales are never listed there and never appear online.
Those sales trade on a broker-to-broker private network, and I am a participating broker. Only the agents and brokers who do most of the business at this price point use it, and a surprising number of agents do not know it exists because they do not sell in this range. It covers homes, lots, ranches and condos priced over $1M, and much of it is waterfront or in the Austin core, West Austin, Westlake and Rollingwood, where prices run past $1.5M.
Sellers and their brokers use it for privacy: no public photos or floor plans, and no showings to buyers who have not been qualified.
Contact me for off-market private luxury listings you will never see online
97 Lago Vista homeowners have trusted my real estate team to sell their home in the MLS, and that count doesn’t include a single buyer we’ve represented. Everything on this page comes from the same MLS record we used to price those homes.
What these numbers mean if you are selling is on Is Lago Vista a buyer's market or a balanced one for sellers?, and every number on this page is also broken out in the tables on 78645 housing market report: Lago Vista, Jonestown and Point Venture by price range.
Last updated October 16, 2026. Sales data covers the 90 days ending October 15, 2026 and the twelve months ending the same day (Unlock MLS via MLS Grid); listing inventory as of October 16, 2026.
Builders hold 15.5% of the homes for sale in Lago Vista, so most of what a buyer can tour here is a resale.
The MLS shows 16 builder names. Saratoga Homes has the most listings, 8, Westin Homes has 6, and every other builder, among them Drees Custom Homes and Savannah Custom Homes, has two or fewer. Some builder listings carry no builder name on the MLS record, so the counts in Table 1 do not add up to all of them.
Westin Homes asks more per home than Saratoga Homes. Table 1 shows the ten builders with the most listings, and Savannah Custom Homes, with one, sits just below its cutoff. The builder list is long and the listings are few, so which builder your buyer compares you with depends more on your price than on a name.
Table 1. Builder listings in Lago Vista by builder name on the MLS record, as of October 16, 2026; 33 builder listings of 213 homes for sale. Source: Unlock MLS.
| Builder | Listings | Asking range | Median asking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saratoga Homes | 8 | $439,950 to $499,950 | $489,950 |
| Westin Homes | 6 | $594,749 to $814,699 | $689,618 |
| Drees Custom Homes | 2 | $739,900 to $799,900 | $769,900 |
| B Lawless | 1 | $395,000 to $395,000 | $395,000 |
| Mcdonald-Atkinson | 1 | $429,900 to $429,900 | $429,900 |
| Mws Builders | 1 | $1,699,000 to $1,699,000 | $1,699,000 |
| Better Way Construction | 1 | $750,000 to $750,000 | $750,000 |
| DH Homes | 1 | $448,770 to $448,770 | $448,770 |
| Pendora Homes | 1 | $849,000 to $849,000 | $849,000 |
| Owner Managed Homes, Jeff Walling | 1 | $1,648,000 to $1,648,000 | $1,648,000 |
Builder asking runs from $310,000 to $1,699,000.
Over the past twelve months the busiest subdivisions were Lago Vista Country Club Estate and Lakeside at Tessera, 16 closings each. The typical home that sold in the first was built in 2019 and in the second in 2025.
Highland Lake Estates follows, in several sections, and the MLS carries Lakeside at Tessera under more than one name, among them Lakeside at Tessera on Lake Travis. Those names sold at very different medians, so Table 2 shows each, and a seller pricing in Tessera should compare against the name that matches the house.
Table 2. Lago Vista subdivisions by closings in the twelve months ending October 15, 2026, with the median build year of what sold and the count for sale as of October 16, 2026. Source: Unlock MLS.
| Subdivision (MLS name) | Sold, twelve months | Median sale price | Median build year | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lago Vista Country Club Estate | 16 | $376,000 | 2019 | 8 |
| Lakeside at Tessera | 16 | $374,900 | 2025 | 2 |
| Highland Lake Estates Sec 31 | 12 | $363,000 | 2021 | 3 |
| Lakeside At Tessera On Lake Travis | 11 | $650,000 | 2025 | 6 |
| Lago Vista Sec 02 | 7 | $335,000 | 2016 | 2 |
| Highland Lake Estates Sec 33 | 6 | $385,000 | 2022 | 1 |
| Country Club Estates Sec 08 | 6 | $459,208 | 1994 | 1 |
| Lakeside at Tessera on Lake Travis | 6 | $428,400 | 2024 | 1 |
| Country Club Estates Sec 05 | 6 | $422,500 | 1998 | 1 |
| Bar-K Ranches 12 | 5 | $554,775 | 2020 | 1 |
Builder listings also appear in The Hollows, Ferguson Estates and Waterford on Lake Travis. An owner in an older section, such as Country Club Estates Sec 08 or Sec 05, is, in my read, more likely to be weighed against another resale than a new build.
Builders are absent from the lowest-priced homes and busiest in the middle. None of the homes for sale under $300,000 is a builder listing, so an owner there is pricing against other resales.
Builders list more homes between $450,000 and $549,999 than anywhere else in town, and each of those ranges reads as a buyer’s market on the twelve-month basis, for that range. If your home would list there, the finished new house is the likelier tour after yours.
Above that, builders list in the $800,000s, a range that reads as a buyer’s market for that range on the twelve-month basis, at 11.1 months of inventory. Higher up, builders list in a few ranges where sales are scarce, so the walkthrough has to do the work.
A seller under $300,000 and a seller in the $500,000s are facing different afternoons in the same town.
In my read, a builder’s house wins on newness, on a warranty and on an inspection report with little in it. A buyer who tours both is comparing your age and wear against a house with none, and the comparison is hardest for a home that looks a generation older than its neighbors.
What buyers actually pay for new builds here is harder to read. Only a few closed in the last three months, so the evidence rests on a small base, and it is laid out on Selling in Lago Vista? What buyers are paying per square foot now.
The comparison also runs the other way: a finished house has no history on your street, and your home has years of it.
A resale wins on a price the market has already tested and on a street a buyer can walk. The neighbor’s sold price is a record, and a builder’s asking price is a starting point.
Resale sellers carry their own pressure. The resale listings ask a median $467,500, and most of them have already cut their price, so the neighbor down the street is the competition for many owners and the first price is the lever you control. Why some listings fail to get out is on How to tell a price problem from a market problem on a Lago Vista listing.
That depends on your price and your street, and an address tells us more than a town average. Run your address to see the list.
Whether to list now or wait, in light of who else is listing, is on Should you sell your Lago Vista home now, or wait? The tables for the town and the ZIP are on 78645 housing market report: Lago Vista, Jonestown and Point Venture by price range.
Lago Vista has plenty of homes for a buyer to look at, and only a few of them are within reach of your price. In most of town the closest one is a neighbor’s resale, and in a few price ranges it is a finished builder house.
So for your house: at the price you would list at, which homes would a buyer walk through this week, and what does yours show them that those do not?
If you want to know which houses your buyer is touring instead of yours, start with the homes at your price. Request my complimentary Home Competitor Analysis for your address. You get:
No obligation. The report for your part of Lago Vista arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome. 97 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Lago Vista (Unlock MLS, all time).
Chris’s position, WIR positions library, approved September 9, 2026.
Know the exact house your buyer will tour the same afternoon as yours, by community, by price. Most sellers price against the neighbor’s resale.
In most of Lago Vista the neighbor’s resale is still the competition. In the middle of the market, a builder’s finished house is the one that can take the afternoon.
Watters International Realty is a Texas real estate brokerage, and I am its broker of record. This page is based on Unlock MLS data analyzed on October 16, 2026. 97 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Lago Vista (Unlock MLS, all time).
You get the competing listings near you, whether a builder is among them, and a walkthrough before any pricing talk.
Contact me for off-market private luxury listings you will never see online.
No obligation. The report arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome.
