Custom homes in Johnson City
LBJ's hometown, the Blanco County seat, and the crossroads of US 281 and US 290 on the Hill Country wine road. There is no production builder in Johnson City. The land comes in five-acre-and-up tracts with wildlife exemptions, and every home on it is drawn for the owner.
No production builders, five-acre tracts, and dark skies.
Johnson City is about 47 miles west of Austin on US 290, an hour to downtown, and roughly an hour and a quarter to Leander. It's a town of about 1,700 with the LBJ National Historical Park to the west, Pedernales Falls State Park to the east, the Bamberger Ranch Preserve to the north and Fredericksburg half an hour on. Pedernales Electric is headquartered downtown.
Acreage here is private well and septic almost without exception. The Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District registers every well; domestic wells are usually exempt from permitting but still registered. Unincorporated Blanco County has no residential building permit beyond the septic permit, so the county's rules, the deed restrictions and the builder's own standards are what govern the work.
Johnson City ISD serves the town and most of the subdivisions around it. The county has an active dark-sky community, and most of the newer subdivisions write down-lighting into their covenants.
Building in Johnson City
Every community around Johnson City is custom: Legacy Hills, The Preserve at Walnut Springs, Stanton Vistas, Redbud Ranch, Byrd Ranch Estates. Most ask for two thousand square feet and seventy-five percent masonry, which our plans clear easily, and most run their plans through an architectural committee, which we handle.
The distance from Leander shapes how we build here: longer site days, a milestone schedule you can follow from home, and one person to call. Well yield varies between the ridges and the valleys, and the rocky soil usually means an aerobic septic system, so we settle both before pricing.
One community we don't build in: Homesteads at Deer Creek, a fixed-plan spec development in town.
Where we build in Johnson City.
Communities where you choose your own builder and no production builder has ever built. Each one has its own page.
The Preserve at Walnut Springs
Sixty-six homesteads on two thousand protected acres.
Plans that fit acreage here.
All of our plans are drawn for half-acre lots and up. These are the three we'd show first on open land.
Romans
3,974 sq ft · 4 bd · 3.5 ba · 2 story
U-shaped around a courtyard pool. The primary suite has its own wing and an outdoor shower.
Fits from 0.5 acreView planMark
4,503 sq ft · 4 bd · 4.5 ba · 1 story
Theater, gym, game room and guest suite on one level, with covered porches along the whole back.
Fits from 0.75 acreView plan
Luke
4,358 sq ft · 4 bd · 3.5 ba · 2 story
Primary suite, study and guest suite downstairs. Summer kitchen and pool bath off the back porches.
Fits from 0.5 acreView planWhat building on acreage here looks like.
The same process we use everywhere, with the land questions answered first.
We walk the parcel first.
Water, septic and soil, power, access, floodplain, easements and the driveway. We settle those before anything is drawn, because they decide the budget.
We handle the county and the ETJ.
Rural land can sit in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction without being in the city. We sort out which rules apply and run the permits.
One person to call.
A milestone schedule you can follow and a single point of contact for the whole build. See the eight steps.
Questions about Johnson City.
Do you build in Johnson City?
Yes. It's the farthest end of our service area, about an hour and a quarter from Leander, and worth the drive: there are no production builders here and the communities are all custom.
What permits does a home need in Blanco County?
Outside the city limits, a septic permit through the county and well registration with the groundwater district. There's no county building inspection, so the deed restrictions and the builder's standards govern. Inside the city limits, a city permit.
Is there city water on acreage?
No. Nearly every subdivision is private well and septic. Well yield varies by ridge and valley, and we confirm it before pricing.
Which Johnson City communities take an outside builder?
All of them. Legacy Hills, The Preserve at Walnut Springs, Stanton Vistas, Redbud Ranch and Byrd Ranch Estates each run plans through a committee or light restrictions, and none has a builder roster.
Have land in Johnson City, or looking for some?
Send us a note with the address or the listing. We'll walk it with you and tell you what it will support before you spend anything on plans.
Johnson City
Tell us a little about what you're looking for and Demitri will follow up himself.