If you’re considering moving to Austin, Texas but you don’t want to be in the middle of the city, you’d rather be outside in the suburbs, perhaps closer to the Texas Hill Country then Dripping Springs, Texas could be an excellent choice for you. It’s a small town just to the southwest of Austin, we have a lot of friends and clients who have moved that direction, and we’re only 20 minutes away. We love to go visit there, but it’s not the right place for everyone. So in this video, I’m going to break down some of the pros and the cons of Dripping Springs so that way you can decide if it’s the right match for you.
So we’re going to start with the cons first. So one of the things to know about Dripping Springs, it is a smaller town, you’re not going to have a lots of job opportunities out there. So most of the families who live out there, maybe have the option of working remotely. Otherwise, you’re going to be driving into Austin most likely to be going back and forth to work.
Now the second thing that’s a con kind of going along with that is the traffic and congestion out that direction. Now, highway 290 is nightmarish to drive on right now. But hopefully it will be resolved very soon in the next year and a half or so. So right now there is road construction all out that direction to widen highway 290, there’s going to be an overpass that connects it with highway 71. So we’ll actually move like a highway instead of having stoplights all along the way. So once that’s completed, then the drives and commute times will be a whole lot better. But just know that if you live there, right now, you’re gonna have to put up with a lot of road construction until that road gets finished.
And third thing you may not like about living in Dripping Springs is a lack of shopping and just resources that you might depend on. So if you’re gonna go clothing shopping, look for new shoes, this is probably not the place you’re going to do it. They don’t have a big mall or anything out there. So you will be commuting either to the hill country Galleria, or into Austin to have some better selections. The same goes with restaurants and other types of things. There are some really amazing restaurants out there. But there’s not tons and tons of choices like you would have in a bigger city. So again, you may have to commute in occasionally if you want some more choices.
And then the fourth thing to be aware of is just overall cost of living. So definitely the home prices out and Dripping are a little bit higher than what you would get in other suburb areas. I just did a quick search over the last 90 days to see what the cost of single family homes, and on average, they were about 0,000. So that’s about $100,000 more than the average in City of Austin. So just know you pay a little bit extra to live there, you can still get a cute starter home that’s new construction for maybe $450 or so are a little bit higher. But if you’re searching in the three hundreds or under four, it’s pretty much impossible to find anything out there. There’s also on the other extreme, big beautiful, you know, luxury homes that are multi million that have more land and space. So overall, it’s going to be a little bit more expensive area to live than other parts of town.
So let’s dive into some reasons why you might love living in Dripping Springs. The first one is the natural beauty Dripping Springs is known as the gateway to the Texas Hill Country. So on the topography expect beautiful gentle rolling hills mature oak trees, there are some gorgeous state parks out there like the Pedernales Falls State Park or the Hamilton Pool reserve. So there’s beautiful opportunities to go hiking and do things outdoors. You also have a better chance of finding land where you maybe can get an acre or two or more that’s less likely to be found in the city.
The second thing to love about Dripping Springs is that it does have a small town charm and a vibe to it. There’s several festivals that are throughout the year. They’re held in the downtown area. The Founders Day Festival is one of them. There’s also local farmers markets, there’s so many opportunities to really meet your neighbors and come to know each other as a community. So a lot of our friends that live there, that’s one of their main things that they love is that they actually feel connected, which you may not feel in a big city.
Third thing to love about dripping screens is it does have its own unique arts and culture. So there’s lots of venues where you can enjoy live music. There’s tons of distilleries and wineries in the area, and just unique places to visit. There’s very cool restaurants as well. You’re only a short drive further out into the wine country just down to 90 To the west. You can get to Johnson City, Stonewall, Texas in Fredericksburg. So there’s about 60 or 70 different wineries out that direction within a short drive.
And finally, a lot of families love moving to Dripping Springs because of the school district. Dripping Springs school district is a smaller one. It just has one High School, a few Middle School and Several Elementary Schools. A lot of the buildings are beautiful because they’ve been newly built in the last few years because there’s so much growth out that direction. And being a smaller district again, it gives more opportunities for kids to really get to know each other and to build deeper relationships with the teachers there as well.
Now we love Dripping Springs ourselves, we think it’s a beautiful area. But before you make a decision to move there, definitely factor in the commute time, the proximity to shopping and all the places where you want to be and decide if it’s the right lifestyle or not for you. If you have more questions about Dripping Springs, just message us.
