North Austin

Block House Creek

Block House Creek, named after the waterway that runs through the community, is home to approximately 2,200 residences The community is home to five parks (for residents' use only) that are maintained by the Block House Municipal Utility District (MUD). The jewel of Block House Creek is the 21-acre Tumlinson Park, home to a beach-entry pool with water slide, and Walker House.

Walker House, which is available for residents to reserve, is located on the site of the former Walker Ranch. Apache Park features a year-round heated pool, home base of the community swim team, the Tidal Waves. Between them, the parks at Block House Creek feature lighted tennis, basketball and skate courts, hike-and-bike trails, ball fields and even a dirt-bike jump.

Homes in Block House Creek range in size from approximately 1,100 to 2,800 square feet and are priced from about $100,000 to upward of $180,000. The houses were built over a nearly 20-year time period, from 1983 to the present, which gives the community a varied look and feel.

Block House Creek, which counts U.S. 183, a major Austin-area thoroughfare, as one of its borders, is far from remote. The neighborhood is becoming more centrally located everyday.

Block House Creek Elementary, part of the exemplary Leander Independent School District, is on-site. The remaining schools that serve the community are Artie Henry Middle and Vista Ridge High schools.

Cat Hollow

The star of this community has been rising for about a decade. Once a fairly secluded bedroom community on the outskirts of Round Rock, Cat Hollow counts RM 620, now a major Austin-area thoroughfare, as one of its boundaries. Great Oaks Drive and Liberty Walk complete the community's triangular shape.

Cat Hollow has recently become more and more centrally located. In addition to the grocery store and hospital, the area around Cat Hollow now features banks, restaurants, varied services and shops and much more.

Cat Hollow has all the neighborhood amenities including parks, pools, playgrounds, jogging trails.

Brushy Creek MUD, which provides water and waste water services to Cat Hollow, maintains eight parks, four greenbelts and several hike-and-bike trails within a few miles of the neighborhood. There are three parks, Cat Hollow Park and Pool, Community Park and Pepper Rock Park, and two greenbelts are within Cat Hollow boundaries. There also are several city- and county-maintained parks and outdoor activity areas nearby.

There are around 1,200 homes in Cat Hollow. That number is bound to grow as Capital Pacific and Wilshire Homes continue to build in the development. The majority of the homes were built from 1994 to the present and range from 1,200 to 4,500 square feet. While there are homes in the $300,000-plus price range, the average home price falls somewhere between $150,000 to $250,000.

Cat Hollow is served by Round Rock Independent School District. Most elementary school children attend the award-winning Great Oaks Elementary School, but a sizeable percentage attends Brushy Creek Elementary, as well. Cedar Valley Middle and McNeil High schools round out the public schools that serve Cat Hollow.

Forrest Creek in Round Rock

Situated in Round Rock, west of County Road 122 and a few miles east of Interstate 35, Forest Creek is bounded by Gattis School Road to the south. U.S. 79 is north of the community by only a few minutes. The upscale community is close enough to Round Rock to be convenient, yet far enough away to maintain its own identity.

A large part of Forest Creek's identity can be found in the Forest Creek Golf Club. The par 72, 7,147-yard golf course is the centerpiece of the community. The course has been nationally recognized as one of the finest public golf courses in Texas. For the avid golfer, there are a total of three public courses within seven miles of the community.

Another feature that helps define the community is the on-site school, Forest Creek Elementary, which maintains an exemplary rating. Ridgeview Middle School and Stoney Point High School are the other nearby schools that serve Forest Creek.

As a growing community, Forest Creek is home to new construction as well as resale homes with a variety of price points. A number of builders are active in Forest Creek, including Toll Brothers, Clark Wilson and Ryland Homes. Homes range from a two-bedroom townhouse measuring 1,265 square feet to a sprawling six-bedroom, single-family home measuring 5,000 square feet. The tax rate for the area is 2.7233 percent.

As Round Rock has grown, it has brought a wealth of recreation and shopping options to the residents of Forest Creek. The La Frontera shopping center is very close by and offers numerous places to have a meal, spend a few dollars or spend some time. In addition to shopping and dining, Round Rock is home to the minor-league baseball team, the Round Rock Express, at the nearby Dell Diamond. Dell Computer and a host of high-tech employers are close by.

Wells Branch

Situated in north Austin, halfway between MoPac and Interstate 35, Wells Branch is a vibrant community in its prime.

Starting in the $90s, homes in Wells Branch are priced up into the $250s. The varied prices reflect the age of homes in the community - from 1982, the year Wells Branch opened, until 2003 - and a size range of about 800 to 3,000 square feet.

In addition to I-35 to the west and MoPac to the east, Wells Branch also counts Grand Avenue Parkway to the north and Wells Branch Parkway to the south as its boundaries. This puts this established community an easy distance from the shopping, dining and recreational facilities of the La Frontera, Gateway and Arboretum shopping centers.

Major north Austin employers, including many in the high-tech arena, are also within a comfortable distance.

There are also many amenities provided by the MUD. In addition to providing water and wastewater services, it provides residents with numerous recreation opportunities, including a recreation center, community center, parks pool and more.

The Wells Branch Recreation Center features a full-size basketball court, a workout room with exercise machines and free weights, and multi-purpose rooms for fitness classes and meetings. Wells Branch is home to two swimming pools, the junior-Olympic sized Willow Bend pool and the Katherine Fleischer pool at the park of the same name. Also at Katherine Fleischer Park is the Homestead, an 1850s-era cabin complex available for tours and festivals in the community. North Mills Park is the second park in the community.

In addition to the Wells Branch Community Garden, which gives residents a chance to exercise their green thumbs and enjoy the great outdoors, other opportunies to enjoy nature include several miles of hike-and-bike trails winding throughout the community and Frisbee golf.

Most of the kids in Wells Branch attend the schools of the Round Rock Independent School District, but a few attend Pflugerville ISD schools. The majority of children attend Wells Branch or Northwest elementary schools, Deerpark Middle and McNeil High schools. In addition to the utilities the MUD is responsible for, TXU Gas provides gas. TXU Energy and The City of Austin share in providing electricity. The tax rate is 2.956 percent.