The median list price inside the gates of The Hills sat at roughly $1.075 million as of June 2026, with homes averaging 63 days on market and about $346 per square foot. Those are the numbers a portal will show you. They are also the numbers that hide the most important part of a purchase here, which is that the mortgage is only one of three recurring charges every homeowner in this community signs up for on closing day.
If you are comparing The Hills against Rough Hollow, Serene Hills, or Old Lakeway, the sticker gap tells you very little until you stack the carrying costs side by side. That is the exercise most buyers do too late.
The membership line item you cannot opt out of
Every home inside The Village of The Hills carries a semi-annual HOA assessment of $775, which pencils out to roughly $129 a month. That part looks standard for a gated Lake Travis community. The part that catches out-of-market buyers is the second, non-optional line: every homeowner is required to maintain a social membership at The Hills Country Club, currently around $147 a month. That combined floor of about $276 a month applies whether you play golf, use the pool, or never set foot in the clubhouse.
The house does not come with a club membership, and the membership does not come with the house. They are two separate contracts that happen to be tied to the same address.
This is the mechanism a lot of buyers misread. The social membership is mandatory. The golf, racquet, and full lifestyle memberships are separate tiers layered on top, with their own initiation fees and monthly dues, negotiated with the club and not conveyed with the property.
The real monthly stack
Here is what the fixed portion of ownership looks like before the mortgage, taxes, or insurance enter the picture.
| Line item | Approximate monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Village of The Hills HOA | ~$129 |
| Mandatory Hills Country Club social membership | ~$147 |
| Optional golf or lifestyle membership tier | Varies by tier and initiation |
| Total community floor (before mortgage, tax, insurance) | ~$276 |
Independent tracking of country club communities in the Lake Travis area estimates that once buyers layer a full golf or lifestyle tier onto the required base, monthly carrying costs beyond the mortgage can land anywhere from about $500 to more than $2,000. The spread is entirely driven by how a buyer answers one question: how much of the club do they actually intend to use.
What the club tier decision actually costs
The Hills Country Club is now operated under Invited, whose members access a national network of 350+ private clubs through the XLife program. That network value is real for buyers who travel, and it is worthless for buyers who do not. Deciding which of those two you are before you write an offer changes the math on the house.
Two other facts worth pricing in:
- The club offers a junior tier for members 44 and under at a $6,000 initiation plus monthly dues, with the option to convert to a full Hills Golf or Champions Golf membership at 45.
- Some memberships carry waitlists. A buyer who assumes they can walk into a golf tier the day they close may find the tier they wanted is not immediately available.
The Hills of Lakeway sits inside a 72-hole club system. The original Hills course was the first course in Austin designed solo by Jack Nicklaus. Flintrock Falls, a few miles from the original clubhouse, was co-designed by Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II. The Lakeway Country Club side of the system adds the Live Oak and Yaupon courses, and the Academy of Golf and World of Tennis Sports Complex round out the amenity footprint. This is the asset you are buying access to, or paying to preserve for your neighbors while you use very little of it. Both are legitimate answers.
The gate is a feature that also shapes the transaction
The Hills is one of the few 24/7 guard-gated communities in the Austin area with a staffed entrance and a dedicated resident access lane, not a code box. That single fact does several things to a real estate transaction that surprise first-time buyers into the neighborhood:
- Every showing needs to clear the gate. Listing agents pre-clear buyer agents, and unannounced drive-bys do not happen the way they do in an ungated community.
- Every contractor bid during option period, from foundation to HVAC, needs gate access arranged. Sellers who staff this well keep their timelines. Sellers who do not, do not.
- Post-close, the same friction applies to deliveries, cleaners, landscapers, and guests. Some households find the guardhouse pace effortless. Others spend the first six months adjusting.
A 63-day average days-on-market inside the gates, against a Lakeway-wide median that sat around $777,000 in February 2026 with faster turnover in lower price bands, is not a signal that The Hills is soft. It reflects a smaller buyer pool doing more diligence, plus a normal seasonal cadence for homes above $1M. Sellers who understand that curve price to the top of the second showing, not the first click.
What a dollar per square foot actually buys here
At roughly $346 average per square foot in mid-2026, The Hills prices at a premium to newer stucco-and-glass builds pushing north of $400 in parts of Serene Hills and Rough Hollow. The reason is not that the houses are inferior. The reason is variety. Homes in The Hills were built across multiple decades, so limestone Hill Country facades sit next to Mediterranean stucco, and single-story garden homes sit next to two-story customs. Current inventory ranges from around 1,387 square feet to nearly 7,900 square feet, with a median around 3,229 square feet, and listing prices span the mid-$600s to more than $1.3 million.
For a buyer, that variance is the opportunity. A $346 average is a blended number pulled across original-condition 1990s homes and full studs-out renovations. The market is not pricing every home the same, and comps inside this community require a much more careful pull than a portal average implies. Two homes on the same street can trade six figures apart based on renovation depth alone.
The zoning is Lake Travis Independent School District. The Village of The Hills has held its own incorporated status since May 1997, which is why the mailing address reads The Hills rather than Lakeway. Baylor Scott and White Medical Center Lakeway sits about ten minutes from the gate, and downtown Austin is roughly 22 miles and 30 minutes in normal traffic via TX-71.
A short FAQ
Does buying a home in The Hills include a golf membership? No. Purchase of a home requires a social membership at The Hills Country Club, currently around $147 a month, but golf, racquet, and full lifestyle memberships are separate contracts with their own initiation fees and dues, negotiated directly with the club.
Can I skip the club entirely? The social tier is a condition of homeownership inside The Village of The Hills, so it cannot be dropped. Everything above the social tier is optional.
Why is average days on market longer here than in Lakeway overall? Homes inside the gates cluster in a higher price band with a smaller pool of qualified buyers who are also doing extra due diligence on club fees and gate logistics. That extends the average marketing window even when demand is steady. It does not indicate distress.
What is the practical difference between the original Hills course and Flintrock Falls? The original Hills course is the tighter, older Jack Nicklaus solo layout with heavier elevation and Hill Country vistas. Flintrock Falls, a Nicklaus and Nicklaus II co-design about three miles away, plays with more risk-reward variety and a separate clubhouse. Members access both under the same Hills Country Club umbrella.
Where to go from here
If you are weighing an offer inside The Hills against a comparable home in Rough Hollow or Serene Hills, the honest apples-to-apples comparison is not list price to list price. It is total monthly carry, factoring the mandatory social membership plus whichever club tier matches how you actually intend to live. Get that model right before you write, and the price-per-square-foot conversation stops being confusing.
That is the modeling work Kristen Balke does with buyers before an offer goes in, working alongside Bramlett Partners to pull real comps, current dues schedules, and gate-access logistics into one clear picture. If you would like that picture for a specific home, let's connect.
