I’m starting this page as an ongoing resource: a plain-language read on where the Highland Lakes housing market stands, pulled from real MLS-reported data rather than a gut feeling. It covers Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay, Kingsland, Granite Shoals, Cottonwood Shores, Burnet, Sunrise Beach Village, Meadowlakes, Highland Haven, and Sherwood Shores. I’ll come back and refresh the numbers periodically, so bookmark this page instead of searching for a new one next time you want an update.
Data source and period: the figures in this update come from Texas REALTORS MarketViewer, filtered to the Highland Lakes Association of REALTORS® coverage area, all-residential properties, comparing July of each year from 2022 through 2026. When I refresh this page, that’s the line I’ll update. Everything else below is written to stay accurate regardless of which month it is.
Where prices are headed
Home prices across the Highland Lakes softened from their 2021–2022 peak, and that’s still the case. In Marble Falls, the median sale price has come down from where it sat at the top of the market. Horseshoe Bay, Kingsland, and Granite Shoals show the same pattern, though the swings look bigger some months than others because these are still small markets. A dozen or so closings in a given month is normal, and a handful of high or low sales can move the median more than the underlying market actually moved.
That’s an important caveat for towns like Cottonwood Shores, Sunrise Beach Village, Meadowlakes, and Highland Haven. These markets often see fewer than five closed sales in a month, so a single high-end lake home closing can swing the reported median 30 or 40 percent in either direction. I’d rather tell you that plainly than hand you a headline number that doesn’t hold up.
Texas is a non-disclosure state, so sale prices aren’t public record here the way they are in some other states. What you’re seeing in any market report, including this one, is MLS-reported data, not county filings. I’m not going to cite dollar figures tied to specific closings on this page; I’ll stick to the trend direction and the association-level medians.
Inventory and time on market
This is the clearest trend in the data, and it’s consistent across nearly every town in the association’s coverage area. Months of inventory (how long it would take to sell through everything currently listed, at the recent pace of sales) has climbed substantially since 2022 almost everywhere:
- Marble Falls: roughly 3 months of inventory in July 2022, now runs closer to 11.
- Horseshoe Bay: roughly 4.5 months in 2022, now over 16.
- Kingsland: roughly 3.5 months in 2022, now over 18.
- Granite Shoals: roughly 1.5 months in 2022, now nearly 15.
- Burnet: roughly 2.5 months in 2022, now under 9.
Active listings tell the same story from a different angle. Horseshoe Bay went from around 125 homes on the market in July 2022 to well over 400 by July 2026. Kingsland roughly tripled. Granite Shoals went up nearly ninefold. More people aren’t suddenly deciding to sell. Homes are taking longer to find a buyer, so more of them are sitting on the market at any given time. Sherwood Shores buyers and sellers are seeing the same regional shift even where the local sample size is too small to report a clean number.
Buyer or seller leverage right now
As a rough rule of thumb, under about 5 months of inventory favors sellers, 5 to 7 months is close to balanced, and much beyond that starts favoring buyers. By that yardstick, most of the Highland Lakes has moved from a strong seller’s market in 2022 into buyer’s-market territory in the larger towns, with Burnet sitting closer to balanced than the lake-adjacent towns.
What that means day to day: buyers have more room to negotiate on price and terms than they did three or four years ago. Homes that are priced and presented well are still moving; it’s the overpriced or dated listings that are sitting. Sellers who are watching neighbors’ listings go stale should treat that as a signal to price accurately from day one rather than testing the market high and cutting later.
Want live numbers instead of a trend line?
Everything above is a snapshot in time, refreshed periodically. If you want current, real-time market data for a specific area or price range, use the live market snapshot tool. It pulls straight from MLS data on demand, so it’s the better tool when you need today’s numbers for a specific search. This page is the better read when you want the bigger-picture direction the market has been moving over the past few years without pulling the report yourself.
I’ll keep this updated
I plan to come back and refresh the data on this page periodically rather than write a new post every time. If you’re reading this well after it was first published, the trend descriptions above still reflect the market direction as of the last refresh noted at the top of the page. Check that date line if you want to know how current it is.
Have a specific question about your street, your subdivision, or your timeline? That’s exactly what I’m here for. Call or text me at (830) 953-5571, or reach out here and I’ll walk you through what’s happening in your specific corner of the Highland Lakes. Robbie English, Broker/REALTOR with Uncommon Highland Lakes Realty.
