As the Austin area continues its growth in population and expanding economy, master-planned communities are becoming more prominent and plentiful in the suburban towns surrounding the city center. Austin can’t currently match the number of master-planned communities found in nearby urban regions like Dallas and Houston, but all signs point to a rise in amenity-loaded housing developments designed for families and young professionals.

Already, Austin’s community’s have garnered attention from real estate analysts like John Burns Real Estate Consulting, who included the Siena at Round Rock in its 2017 ranking of the 50 top-selling MPCs in America.

With 428 net sales in 2017, Siena at Round Rock claims the No. 27 spot on the list. 

Photo by James Goulden

The community features three- to five-bedroom homes with prices starting in the mid $200,000s, firmly within the standard range for homes of that size in commuting distance from Downtown Austin. Siena enlisted a fleet of national and local home builders to design and fashion the houses in the community, including KB Home, Pulte Homes, Highland Homes, Saratoga Homes, CastleRock Communities, and Gray Point Homes. 

Siena also includes hiking and biking trails on-site, a swimming pool, basketball court, soccer field, and two private parks for residents. Commuters living at Siena can drive to Austin’s central business district in about 30 minutes.

Austin has seen a major population boom in recent years, with an additional 58,000 residents moving to the area between 2015 and 2017. As tech companies like Dell and Apple establish greater footholds over Austin’s economic growth (and with the possible arrival of Amazon’s second headquarters), opportunities for affordable home ownership with amenities close to the city center will become increasingly desirable to the city’s new population of professionals. Therefore, a growth in master-planned communities can be expected in the near future and, based on the success of communities like Siena, Austin will prove an auspicious market for housing projects like these.