Rollingwood and West Lake Hills come up together in almost every conversation I have about the west side of Austin. They sit next to each other, they share a school district, and they’re both small incorporated cities with their own governments rather than Austin neighborhoods. Past that, the similarities start to thin out. I put this comparison together to lay out the actual facts side by side: government structure, land area, lot sizes, terrain, schools, and what each city offers day to day. I’ll stick to property and area facts throughout, because that’s what actually helps someone evaluate these two cities.
TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read): Rollingwood vs. Westlake Hills: Comparing Two Incorporated Cities West of Austin
- Rollingwood incorporated in 1963 and covers about 0.7 square miles on the west bank of Lady Bird Lake, right next to Zilker Park.
- West Lake Hills incorporated in 1953 and covers roughly 4 square miles of limestone hill terrain west of Rollingwood, with its own retail corridor along Bee Cave Road.
- Both cities run their own municipal governments and police departments, and both are zoned to Eanes ISD, which carries an A rating from the Texas Education Agency.
- Rollingwood’s lots tend to run smaller and closer to downtown, mixing mid-century homes with new custom builds, while West Lake Hills lots run larger on hillier ground.
- I’m Robbie English, a broker at Uncommon Realty in Austin, and I work with buyers and sellers in both cities regularly.
Two Separate Cities, Not Two Austin Neighborhoods
A detail that trips people up: neither Rollingwood nor West Lake Hills is part of the City of Austin. Both are independently incorporated municipalities with their own city councils, city administrators, and municipal budgets. If you buy a home in either one, you pay property taxes to that city, not to Austin, and you fall under that city’s ordinances, permitting process, and code enforcement rather than Austin’s.
Rollingwood incorporated in May 1963 as a Type A general law city. It operates under a council-administrator form of government: a mayor and five council members set policy, and a city administrator handles day-to-day operations and department coordination. The city maintains its own police department and, historically, a volunteer fire department, alongside its own public works and administrative staff.
West Lake Hills incorporated a decade earlier, in September 1953, originally as a village. It also runs a council-administrator government, with its own police department that serves the city’s roughly 3,300 residents. Because West Lake Hills is a larger city geographically, its municipal staff and services scale up accordingly compared to Rollingwood’s smaller operation.
If you want more background on how Austin-area real estate works overall, including the surrounding incorporated cities and unincorporated pockets, I cover that on my Austin, TX page.
Size and Location
Rollingwood is compact. The city covers about 0.7 square miles, all land, bounded roughly by MoPac Expressway (Loop 1) and Westlake Drive, with the western bank of Lady Bird Lake forming its northern edge. Zilker Park, Barton Springs Pool, and the Barton Creek Greenbelt all sit essentially adjacent to Rollingwood’s boundary, which makes those amenities a short trip rather than a drive across town. The 2020 census counted 1,467 residents in Rollingwood.
West Lake Hills sits immediately west and southwest of Rollingwood, and it’s a much bigger footprint at roughly 4 square miles (2,560 acres). The 2020 census put its population at 3,444. Because West Lake Hills stretches farther west into the Hill Country, the drive into downtown Austin from most West Lake Hills addresses takes a bit longer than it does from Rollingwood, simply due to added distance.
Terrain and Home Styles
Rollingwood’s terrain is comparatively flat and low-lying near the lake, transitioning to gently rolling ground as you move south through the city. The housing stock reflects the city’s age: a substantial number of mid-century homes built from the 1950s through the 1970s still stand on quarter-acre to half-acre lots, though I regularly see those older homes replaced by new custom construction as the city’s built environment continues to turn over. Individual lots in Rollingwood range fairly widely, with some closer to a quarter acre and others exceeding an acre depending on where they sit relative to the lake and the greenbelt.
West Lake Hills sits on limestone ridges and hill terrain typical of the Texas Hill Country’s eastern edge. Streets wind along the contours of the land rather than running in a grid, and lots generally run larger than what you’ll find in Rollingwood, in part because the hillside topography itself calls for more land per buildable site. Homes here tend toward custom construction taking advantage of elevation changes and long sightlines across the hill country and, in some cases, back toward the downtown Austin skyline.
Retail, Amenities, and Daily Life
Rollingwood is almost entirely residential. It doesn’t have its own retail corridor to speak of, and residents typically drive into neighboring Austin or West Lake Hills for shopping, dining, and services. What Rollingwood does have is direct proximity to Zilker Park’s trails, Barton Springs Pool, and the Lady Bird Lake hike-and-bike trail, along with Rollingwood Park, a city-owned park with sports fields and a pool.
West Lake Hills has more built-in commercial infrastructure. Bee Cave Road runs through the city and functions as its primary retail and dining corridor, with shopping centers, restaurants, and professional offices spaced along the route. West Lake Hills also maintains its own parks system, including Westlake City Park, which sits alongside the Eanes Elementary campus.
Schools: Eanes ISD
Both cities sit within Eanes Independent School District, a district serving roughly 7,700 students across nine campuses in West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, and adjacent west Austin. Eanes ISD received an A rating from the Texas Education Agency’s accountability system for both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, scoring 94 out of 100 points, and nearly all district campuses individually carried an A rating in the same period.
The district runs five elementary campuses (grades PK/K-5), two middle schools (grades 6-8), and one comprehensive high school. Eanes Elementary, located at 4101 Bee Caves Road in West Lake Hills, serves as the district’s flagship elementary campus with around 650 students and district-wide programs in STEM, fine arts, and literacy. All Eanes ISD elementary campuses feed into Hill Country Middle School, which in turn feeds exclusively into Westlake High School.
Westlake High School currently ranks 52nd among Texas high schools and 412th nationally according to U.S. News & World Report, with a 74 percent AP exam participation rate. Because Rollingwood and West Lake Hills share the same district and the same middle and high school assignment, the academic profile a buyer gets is largely the same regardless of which of the two cities the home sits in. The difference between the two comes down to which elementary campus a specific address is zoned to, which I always verify against Eanes ISD’s current attendance boundaries rather than relying on general reputation.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Rollingwood | West Lake Hills | |
|---|---|---|
| Incorporated | 1963 | 1953 |
| Land area | ~0.7 square miles | ~4 square miles |
| Population (2020 Census) | 1,467 | 3,444 |
| Government | Mayor, five-member council, city administrator | Mayor, council, city administrator |
| Police department | Own municipal police force | Own municipal police force |
| School district | Eanes ISD | Eanes ISD |
| Terrain | Low-lying near the lake, gently rolling | Limestone hills, steeper elevation changes |
| Typical lot sizes | Roughly quarter to half acre, some larger | Generally larger lots than Rollingwood |
| Home styles | Mid-century homes alongside new custom builds | Predominantly custom builds on hillside lots |
| Retail corridor | None within city limits | Bee Cave Road |
| Adjacent amenities | Zilker Park, Barton Springs, Lady Bird Lake trail | Westlake City Park, Bee Cave Road shopping and dining |
Home prices in both cities move often, so I’d rather point you to current listings than quote a number that’s out of date by the time you read this. As a general reference point, recent sales in both cities have clustered in the low-to-mid seven figures, with West Lake Hills showing a wider price spread given its larger lot sizes and greater variation in home age and finish level.
How I’d Frame the Decision
When a buyer asks me to help them think through Rollingwood versus West Lake Hills, I walk through the same set of property questions every time. How close do you need to be to downtown Austin and the lake trail system on a daily basis? Rollingwood wins that comparison outright given its size and location. Do you want more land, more separation from neighboring structures, and hillside topography? West Lake Hills generally delivers more of that per lot. Do you want walkable or short-drive access to retail and dining within city limits? West Lake Hills has Bee Cave Road; Rollingwood does not.
None of that has anything to do with who lives where. It comes down to lot size, terrain, commute distance, and which amenities sit closest to a given address. Both cities carry their own tax rate, their own permitting rules, and their own council meetings, so I always recommend reviewing each city’s current ordinances and tax rate directly before making an offer, since those figures change annually and I want my clients working from current numbers rather than dated averages.
If low-maintenance living within the broader Westlake area is more what you’re after rather than a large single-family lot in either city, I’ve also written up the best lock-and-leave homes in Westlake, which covers a different segment of the market worth knowing about.
Working With Me on Either City
I spend a good amount of my time working properties in both Rollingwood and West Lake Hills, and I track listing activity, permitting patterns, and pricing trends in each city separately because they genuinely are separate municipalities with separate data. If you’re comparing the two for a purchase or trying to figure out what a specific lot or renovation project might be worth, I’m happy to walk through the details with you directly. You can read more about my background on my about page, and more about how I work with buyers and sellers through Uncommon Realty.
Robbie English, REALTOR, Broker at Uncommon Realty.
