I get a version of the same phone call a few times a year: someone who fell in love with the Highland Lakes on a weekend trip, priced out Horseshoe Bay or Marble Falls, and asked whether there’s anywhere left out here that still feels like the lake country their grandparents talked about. My answer is almost always the same word: Kingsland. I’ve walked buyers through everything from older fishing cabins on the Llano River side to newer builds up near the golf course, and it’s one of the few spots left in the Highland Lakes where you can still buy a house on the water without a country-club price tag attached to it.
TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read): Living in Kingsland, TX
- Kingsland sits in eastern Llano County at the point where the Colorado River and Llano River meet to form Lake LBJ, about 64 miles (a little over an hour) from Austin and roughly 12 miles from Marble Falls
- It’s an unincorporated community of around 7,000 people, so there’s no city government or city taxes, and the pace is noticeably slower and more rural than its more built-up lake-town neighbors
- Lake LBJ is a constant-level lake, meaning the water stays high year-round instead of dropping in dry months, which matters a lot if you’re buying a place with a boat dock
- Kids in Kingsland attend Llano ISD, with the district’s Packsaddle Elementary located right in the community and older students heading into the city of Llano for junior high and high school
- The Slab, a low-water crossing on the Llano River over exposed granite, is the town’s best-known gathering spot for swimming and wading, and the annual AquaBoom festival over the Fourth of July is Kingsland’s signature community event
- Kingsland tends to fit people looking for genuine river and lake access without the resort-town price tag or crowds that come with Horseshoe Bay or parts of Marble Falls
Where Kingsland Sits and What the Commute Looks Like
Kingsland is on the eastern edge of Llano County, right where the Colorado River and the Llano River come together to form Lake LBJ. That confluence is the whole reason the town exists where it does, and it’s also why the community has two distinct personalities depending on which side you’re on: the river side, which feels older and more rustic, and the lake side toward RM 1431, which has seen more newer construction over the years.
For anyone still commuting into Austin, figure on about 64 miles and roughly an hour and fifteen minutes each way under normal traffic, mostly on 71 and then in through 290 or 71 depending on where you’re headed. That’s a longer haul than Lakeway or Bee Cave, and most of my Kingsland buyers aren’t commuting daily at all. They’re retirees, remote workers, or people who’ve deliberately traded a shorter commute for more space and water access. Marble Falls, with its grocery stores, hospital, and more day-to-day services, is about 12 miles and 20 minutes down RM 1431, and that’s the drive most Kingsland residents make weekly for anything beyond the basics.
The Character of the Place
Kingsland is unincorporated, which means there’s no city hall, no city property tax, and no city council setting local ordinances. Llano County handles the governance side. That absence of a formal town center shapes how the community feels day to day. There isn’t a walkable downtown strip the way Marble Falls or Fredericksburg has one. What Kingsland has instead is water frontage, a scattering of local businesses along RM 1431, and a population that’s built its social life around the river and the lake rather than around a courthouse square.
The historic Antlers Hotel, a railroad-era property built in 1901 with a collection of restored train cars and cabins on its grounds, gives the town one genuine landmark with real history behind it. Beyond that, Kingsland reads as a working lake community rather than a resort town. You’ll see bass boats and pontoon boats more often than yachts, and a lot of the housing stock reflects decades of gradual lake-house building rather than a master-planned development pushing in all at once.
Housing in Kingsland
I’ll say this carefully because Texas is a non-disclosure state and I’m not going to throw out specific sale figures, but the general pattern holds up deal after deal: Kingsland runs more affordable than Horseshoe Bay and typically less expensive than comparable waterfront in Marble Falls, especially once you get off the immediate lakefront and onto the river side or into the interior neighborhoods. Waterfront lots and homes with a private dock command a real premium, same as anywhere on Lake LBJ, but you don’t have the country-club membership expectations or HOA overhead that come baked into a lot of Horseshoe Bay listings.
The housing stock itself is a mix. You’ll find older, smaller river cottages that have been in the same family for generations right alongside newer custom builds, and lots of land where someone can still build from scratch without fighting a dense subdivision layout. That variety is part of what I like showing buyers here. Depending on budget, someone can land a modest fishing cabin near the river, a mid-size lake home with dock access, or a larger custom build up near Lighthouse Country Club, all inside the same small community.
Schools
Kingsland is served by Llano ISD, the county-wide district that also covers the city of Llano, Sunrise Beach Village, and part of Horseshoe Bay. The district’s Packsaddle Elementary campus sits right in Kingsland and handles pre-K through fifth grade, so younger kids attend school in the community itself rather than being bused elsewhere. Once students move up to junior high and high school, they head into the city of Llano, which is roughly a 20 to 25 minute drive from most parts of Kingsland. It’s a smaller, county-style district rather than a large suburban system, which is a trade-off worth understanding if you’re moving a family here from Austin proper.
Parks, the River, and What There Is to Do
Lake LBJ is the headline feature, and it’s worth understanding why locals talk about it differently than they talk about Lake Travis or Lake Austin. LBJ is a constant-level lake, meaning the Lower Colorado River Authority manages it to hold a steady water line year-round instead of drawing it down in dry summers the way Lake Travis gets drawn down. If you’re buying anything with a boat dock, that consistency is a real practical advantage. The lake stretches about 21 miles with close to 60 miles of shoreline, and it stays productive for boating, water skiing, and fishing even in a dry year.
The Slab is the other thing everyone who knows Kingsland brings up. It’s a low-water crossing on the Llano River, built decades ago over a wide outcropping of pink granite, and it’s become the community’s default swimming hole. People wade, swim, and even pan for gold along that stretch of river, since the state has historically allowed recreational gold panning for about a mile in either direction. I’ll mention, because it’s real local history and worth knowing before you buy nearby, that the Llano River has flooded seriously more than once. A 2018 flood was severe enough to wash out most of the RM 2900 bridge connecting the two sides of Kingsland, and it took roughly seven months to rebuild. The Slab itself has been damaged and closed by flooding more recently too. None of that should scare anyone off the area, but it’s a fair reminder that living on a Hill Country river means paying attention to flood risk in a way that lake-only living doesn’t always require.
Beyond the water, Lighthouse Country Club (longtime locals still call it by its old name, Packsaddle) sits at the headwaters of Lake LBJ and gives golfers a course inside the community itself. Every Fourth of July, the town’s AquaBoom festival draws people from up and down the Highland Lakes for fireworks over the water, and it’s about as close as Kingsland gets to a single, unifying annual event.
Who Kingsland Is a Good Fit For
I steer buyers toward Kingsland when they tell me they want real river or lake access, not a manicured resort version of it, and they’re not tied to a daily Austin commute. It suits retirees looking for a quieter chapter, remote workers who need a home office more than a short drive downtown, and anyone who grew up around a lake house and wants that same feeling without paying Horseshoe Bay prices for it. It’s a tougher sell for someone who wants walkable restaurants and shopping outside their front door, or who needs to be in an Austin office five days a week. If that’s you, Marble Falls or Lakeway will probably serve you better. But if what you actually want is a dock, a slower pace, and a community that still feels like the Highland Lakes did before they got crowded, Kingsland is one of the last places on this chain where you can still find that.
