I’ve shown property in Highland Haven a handful of times over the years, and every single time the buyer’s reaction on the drive in has been some version of “wait, this is it?” That’s not a knock. It’s the whole point of the place. Highland Haven is one of the smallest, quietest towns I work in the Highland Lakes area, and if you’re picturing something with a downtown strip, a grocery store, or even a stoplight, you’re thinking of the wrong town. This is a guide for people who are actually curious about what living there is like day to day, not a sales pitch for amenities that don’t exist.
TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read): Living in Highland Haven, TX
- Small lakeside city on the eastern shore of Lake LBJ in Burnet County, about 7 miles west of Marble Falls and roughly an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes from downtown Austin
- Very small population (a few hundred residents), skews older, and has almost no commercial development inside the city itself — you drive to Marble Falls for groceries, dining, and errands
- Six community parks maintained by the property owners association, including a park with a boat launch, plus a community center that hosts town meetings and a monthly potluck
- Zoned to Marble Falls ISD, not Burnet CISD, despite some conflicting information floating around online
- Housing is mostly single-family homes on lake or near-lake lots, with a mix of long-time owners, retirees, and part-time lake houses, inventory is thin and turns over slowly
- Best fit for retirees, empty-nesters, and buyers who want lake access and genuine quiet over convenience and nightlife
Where Highland Haven Sits and What the Commute Looks Like
Highland Haven sits on the eastern shore of Highland Haven along Lake LBJ, in the southwestern part of Burnet County. It’s about 7 miles west of Marble Falls off RM 1431, which is the road most residents use for the day-to-day drive into town for groceries, the hardware store, or a restaurant. Burnet, the county seat, is farther out at around 18 miles.
Downtown Austin is roughly 57 miles away, which usually runs about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes depending on where in Austin you’re headed and what 71 or 183 traffic is doing that day. I’ve had clients who make that drive for work a few days a week and clients who never make it at all because they retired specifically to stop making commutes like that. Both types exist here. What I’ll tell you honestly is that this is not a bedroom community built around an Austin commute the way somewhere like Leander or Cedar Park is. People move to Highland Haven because they want to be near the lake and near Marble Falls, and Austin proximity is a bonus, not the reason.
The Character of the Town
Highland Haven is genuinely small. We’re talking a few hundred residents total, and the demographics skew noticeably older, a lot of retirees and part-time lake residents. The streets are narrow, the speed limits are low, and golf carts are a normal way to get from your house to one of the parks or down to the water. There’s no commercial strip inside the city limits. No coffee shop, no gas station, no grocery store. If you want any of that, you’re getting in the car and driving into Marble Falls, which takes about ten minutes.
The city itself is run by a small local government, a Board of Alderman that meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at the community center, which also hosts a monthly community potluck on the last Tuesday. There’s a local ladies club that’s been part of the social fabric for years. This is the kind of place where the city government and the social calendar are basically the same handful of people, and that’s not a criticism, it’s exactly why some of my clients want to live here. It’s a real, small-town governance structure, not an HOA newsletter pretending to be one.
The lake itself is the organizing feature of daily life. Lake LBJ is one of the Highland Lakes chain and stays at a fairly constant level year-round, which matters more than people realize if you’re used to lakes that drop ten feet by August. That constant level is a big part of why boating, fishing, and just having a dock that actually reaches the water stay reliable here.
Housing in Highland Haven
I won’t cite specific sale prices here, Texas is a non-disclosure state, and I don’t put transaction numbers in blog posts anyway. What I can tell you qualitatively is that housing stock in Highland Haven is a mix: older lake cottages that have been in families for decades, newer or renovated homes on waterfront or near-waterfront lots, and a smaller number of interior lots away from the shoreline. Lot sizes vary quite a bit, and waterfront naturally commands a premium over interior lots, which is true of pretty much every Lake LBJ community.
Inventory is thin. This is a tiny city with well under 500 residents, so you’re not going to see a dozen new listings hit at once. When something comes up on the water, it tends to move. I’d tell any buyer interested in Highland Haven specifically to be patient and be ready to act when the right property shows up, rather than expecting to shop a wide selection the way you would in a bigger Marble Falls subdivision. A meaningful share of homes here are second homes or part-time residences rather than full-time primary residences, which is worth knowing if you’re hoping for a lot of full-time neighbors right away.
Schools
Highland Haven is zoned to Marble Falls Independent School District, not Burnet CISD, I want to be specific here because I’ve seen that get mixed up online. Kids in Highland Haven attend Highland Lakes Elementary, then Marble Falls Middle School, and Marble Falls High School. Given how few school-age kids actually live in Highland Haven full-time, this is more relevant to a smaller slice of buyers than in most towns I write about, but if you are relocating with kids, Marble Falls ISD is the district you’d be researching, not Burnet’s.
Recreation and Things to Do Nearby
Inside Highland Haven itself, recreation means the lake and the parks. There are six parks around town maintained by the property owners association, and Dove Park has a boat launch that can handle larger lake craft, which matters if you’re not keeping your boat on a private dock. Boating, wakeboarding, paddle boarding, kayaking, and fishing are the default weekend activities for most residents, and the narrow, low-traffic streets make it an easy town for walking or biking too.
For everything else, you’re heading into Marble Falls, which has the grocery stores, restaurants, and the broader Highland Lakes retail and dining scene, plus its own stretch of Lake Marble Falls downtown. Marble Falls is also the closer option for medical care, banking, and the day-to-day errands Highland Haven doesn’t have. If you want more of a built-out small-town main street feel with shops and restaurants you can walk to, that’s Marble Falls, not Highland Haven itself, and that distinction matters for people deciding between the two.
Who Highland Haven Is a Good Fit For
I’d point retirees and empty-nesters toward Highland Haven first among the buyers I work with. If what you want is genuine quiet, a real dock, low traffic, and a slower pace, this town delivers that in a way a lot of “lake adjacent” listings elsewhere don’t actually match once you see them in person. It’s also a solid fit for someone who wants a part-time or weekend lake house and isn’t worried about walkability to shops or a short list of neighbors under 40.
It’s a tougher fit if you need commercial amenities within walking distance, if you’re commuting to Austin daily and want to shave every minute off the drive, or if you’re raising a big family and want a neighborhood full of other kids nearby. For those buyers I usually point them toward Marble Falls proper or one of the larger Highland Lakes communities instead. If Highland Haven sounds like your pace of life, I’d rather tell you honestly what you’re getting into than oversell a town that’s proud of exactly how small it is.
