Dig In

Move to Bastrop and pull up a seat at its many restaurants and bars

Chef Sonya Cote is a pioneer of the East Austin food scene, and now runs Store House Market & Eatery in Bastrop.

Photo courtesy of Store House Market & Eatery

A major draw for any would-be homebuyer is the area — and specifically its eateries. After all, even with a gourmet kitchen in your new dream home, you won't want to cook every night.

If you're considering Bastrop, on the southeast outskirts of Austin, as your new home base, then your tastebuds will certainly thank you.

Not only is the area flush with top-notch restaurants serving up an unexpected variety of Texan, American, Mexican, Chinese, Greek, Italian, and German food, but there are also several wineries, breweries, and distilleries where you can fill your cup.

Here's a closer look at some of them:

Cheers, y'all
It's easy to spend a a day exploring the beverages of Bastrop. Start your round of refreshments with a simple stroll to Bastrop’s very first winery, the Colorado River Winery.

Conveniently located near the banks of the Colorado in the heart of downtown Bastrop, Colorado River Winery offers a rotating collection of small-batch wines in their Tuscan-style tasting room. If you love what you taste you can purchase bottles or even join their special wine club.

After finishing your final tasting, saunter down the street to find Copper Shot Distillery, a small family-owned shop handcrafting clever, original liquors on-site and in small batches.

Visitors can lounge on the patio while tasting the quality of flavors in each delicious spirit. Sip from an assortment of creatively flavored moonshines (like apple pie or watermelon), smooth bourbons, or vodka.

If you want margaritas and Mexican food, look no further than Anita's or Casa Chapala. Want a cold draft beer? Camp out on the patio at Iron Bridge Brew House, overlooking the Colorado. Whatever your thirst, Bastrop has the beverage to quench it.

Heaps of eats
Owner and executive chef Sonya Cote, along with chef de cuisine Kat Rousset, bring fresh, local menus to Bastrop at Store House Market & Eatery.

Cote is a pioneer of the East Austin food scene, opening Eastside Showroom, Hillside Farmacy, and Eden East. She and her husband own a five-acre farm one mile north of Store House Market & Eatery, which supplies the restaurant with its seasonal harvest.

Join the monthly Out on the Farm Supper Club, which provides a rotating, multi-course seasonal meal curated by both chefs and paired with a local beverage purveyor.

Nearby Smithville is also becoming its own culinary destination, thanks to the butcher shop, bar, restaurant, and music venue Carne Lenta.

Founded by the Austin hospitality pros behind La Holly and Taco Flats, the buzzy spot specializes in Mexican-style slow roasted meat, which is smoked in-house using 1,000-gallon propane pits.

Also nearby is the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa, which boasts seven delicious different options that range from eclectic Southern fare (Firewheel Cafe) to farm-to-table (Stories Ranch Kitchen) to sushi (the new Sushi by Scratch Restaurants).

Be close to it all
Ready to pack up and move to Bastrop? Consider The Colony, which offers homes in a range of price points from some of the most affordable and respected builders: David Weekley Homes, Lennar Homes, Perry Homes, and many more.

It also features an extensive system of hike and bike trails, beautiful parks, and a greenbelt dog park so you and your furry best friend can hang out outdoors together.

And it's all a mere 30-minute drive to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport via Highway 71. To learn more about The Colony and becoming a resident of Bastrop, head here.

cocktails promoted drinks breweries dinner lunch

real estate report

More closed home sales in Austin show growing homebuyer confidence

Photo courtesy of Keller Williams

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The Austin Board of Realtors has revealed a more optimistic outlook on Austin's housing market, with the latest data showing the first increase in closed home sales year-over-year since February 2022. More closed sales and a gradual increase of housing inventory convey growing buyer confidence throughout the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan statistical area (MSA).

2023 ABoR president Ashley Jackson said in the report that with the increased inventory, buyers can afford to be pickier about the homes they want to purchase. It's especially prevalent for first-time homebuyers to own a house that "checks all the boxes."

"When compared to the past two years of highly competitive market activity, this is both a welcome reprieve and perfect opportunity for buyers looking to enter the market," Jackson said. "Now is the time to take advantage of the increase in leverage that buyers now have."

The slight boost of housing inventory in the MSA is good news, but supply is still limited overall, according to ABoR housing economist Clare Losey, Ph.D.

"ABoR’s Central Texas Housing Development Fees Analysis, released in July 2022, shows that Austin’s drastically high development fees pose a significant barrier to new home construction and thereby diminish growth of our housing supply, especially when compared to other development fees in other Central Texas cities and major metropolitan Texas areas," Losey said. "Higher mortgage rates have led potential sellers to wait longer before entering the market, further constraining the supply of homes for sale."

Losey says it will get harder to predict the state of the housing market through the rest of 2023, as interest rates are likely to increase again before the end of the year.

Median home prices dropped slightly to $460,000 in the Austin-Round Rock MSA, which is a 7.6 percent decrease year-over-year from August 2022. Closed sales rose to 2,939 in August; a 1.4 percent increase. Homes are spending an average of 60 days on the market, which is 28 more days than this time last year.

Travis County
Over 1,350 homes were sold in August of 2023 in Travis County, with median prices dropping almost 5 percent year-over-year to $534,000. There were 4,772 active listings on the market; about 18 percent more than August 2022.

Williamson County
More than 970 homes were sold in August, with median prices sitting at $435,516. There were 1,241 new home listings in Williamson County, with a total 2,867 active home listings.

Hays County
A total of 417 homes were sold in August in Hays County, with median prices continuing to fall to $394,990. Pending sales were up by 8.2 percent year-over-year, while active listings had also risen 33.9 percent to 1,550 homes.

Bastrop County
Bastrop remains the county with the highest inventory in the MSA at 4.8 months' worth, which is 1.2 months more than August of 2022. 154 homes were sold this past August, and median prices are just under $340,000 (a 15 percent decrease). There are 28 percent more active listings on the market in Bastrop County, coming out to 586 homes.

Caldwell County
Homes in Caldwell County sold for a median of $299,990 in July, which is a 6.9 percent drop year-over-year. 42 homes were sold last month, nearly 18 percent less than the year before, and there are 180 active homes on the market. In a massive uptick in new home listings, Caldwell County had 92 new homes on the market in August, or 61.4 percent more than this time last year.

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