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A pool terrace at golden hour, loungers and scalloped umbrellas along the water.

Zilker, and the water under it

The only neighborhood in Austin where how much of your lot you may cover was decided by a citywide vote, because the rain that falls on it comes back up at Barton Springs.

46 homes for sale in Zilkeras of October 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM CDT

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On the market

Zilker right now

Every residential listing whose location falls inside the Zilker planning area, in 78704. That is the boundary the City of Austin publishes, and the one this page uses. From Unlock MLS through MLS Grid as of October 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM CDT. Closed sale prices are not shown: Texas is a non-disclosure state, so every figure here comes from asking prices and days since listing.

For sale
42
Median asking
$907,500
Median per sq ft
$579
Median days listed
79

All 46 of them, newest first. Sort by price either way below. Everything across 78704, filters and all, is on its market page.

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Listed by Allegiant Realty; AustinRealEstate.com; Berkshire Hathaway TX Realty; Central Metro Realty; Christies Intl Real Estate Lone Star; Coldwell Banker Apex; Compass RE Texas, LLC; Compass RE Texas, LLC.; Douglas Elliman Real Estate; Encore Real Estate; Engel & Volkers Austin; HOME SIMPLE OF TEXAS, INC; JBGoodwin REALTORS WL; KW-Austin Portfolio Real Estate; Keller Williams Realty; Kuper Sotheby's Int'l Realty; LPT Realty, LLC; Moreland Properties; PMI Austin; REALTY CAPITAL CITY; Real Estate Alliance, Inc.; Realty of America, LLC; Redfin Corporation; Social Earth Locating; The Agency Austin, LLC; eXp Realty, LLC.

The rule

A swimming hole that regulates your roof

On the eighth of August 1992 Austin voters approved the Save Our Springs ordinance by nearly two to one, and the Council enacted it two days later. It is the reason this neighborhood builds differently from the one across Lamar.

What it does is limit impervious cover, the share of a lot that roof, drive and patio may occupy, to between fifteen and twenty-five percent on land that drains to Barton Springs, because everything that runs off those surfaces reaches the Edwards Aquifer and comes back out at the pool. The Zilker planning area sits in the Barton Creek watershed inside that zone, which puts a ceiling on how much house a given lot can hold that has nothing to do with setbacks or height.

For a buyer this is the single most consequential fact on the page, and it is an address question rather than a neighborhood one: the zone follows drainage, not street names, and the City’s own property profile will tell you what applies to a specific lot. Ask it before you pay for a lot on the strength of what you intend to build, because a plan that works two miles east may not be permittable here at all.

Two purchases

The same neighborhood, two sets of rules

Buying land

A lot

The cover limit governs, the drainage and water quality review is real, and the tree ordinance sits on top of both. A teardown here is a slower and more constrained project than the same teardown in Bouldin, which is part of why so much less of Zilker has been rebuilt. Price the lot on what can actually be permitted on it, and get that answer in writing from someone who has built inside the zone.

Buying a unit

A condominium

Most of what is for sale here: 28 of the 46 listings inside the boundary, against 16 houses. The cover question was answered by the developer years ago, and what you are reading instead is an association: its budget, its reserves and what it has deferred. The downtown page sets out what arrives in the ten days a resale certificate takes, and it applies here unchanged.

The pool decideswhat you canbuild onyour own lot.

October

Two weekends the park is not yours

Austin City Limits takes the Great Lawn for the first two weekends of October, and the fences, staging and street closures run for weeks either side of them. The neighborhood that spends the rest of the year treating Zilker Park as a front yard spends that fortnight walking around it. Barton Springs Pool, the greenbelt and the Butler trail all stay open through the festival, with pool access moved to the Azie Morton Road entrance and parking held there for swimmers.

Owners here have made their peace with it in one of two ways. Some plan a trip around it. Some rent the driveway and the house and come out ahead on the year. What nobody does is discover it in October, so a buyer viewing in spring should know it is coming and ask a neighbour what the street is actually like during it.

An entry hall with a console table under a tall mirror, light falling across a stone floor.

Counted

Newer than its reputation, and one new school

The inventory says something the postcard does not. Inside the boundary as of October 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM CDT the median build year of what is for sale is 2008 across 46 listings that carry one, and condominiums outnumber houses 28 to 16. The cover rules made lots hard to redevelop and easy to build vertically where zoning allowed it, and the result is a market that trades newer and smaller than the streets look.

Zilker Elementary is the campus, and it grew this year: Austin ISD closed Becker Elementary in the 2026-27 consolidation and reassigned its students here. Lively Middle School and Travis Early College High School follow. As everywhere, an attendance zone is a district decision attached to an address and it just moved, so confirm the current one before it is a reason to pay for anything.

Honestly

Who Zilker is wrong for

A buyer planning to build out the lot
In the Barton Springs Zone the limit on how much of a lot may be covered by roof and paving is the binding constraint, not the setbacks and not the height. A plan that pencils in three other neighborhoods can be unbuildable here, and the answer is an address question rather than a neighborhood one. Get it answered before the option period ends, not by an architect after closing.
Anyone who has not been here in October
The festival takes the Great Lawn for two weekends and the setup and teardown run for weeks on either side. Streets close, parking disappears, and the sound carries into the neighborhood after dark. Some owners plan holidays around it and some rent their driveways. Either way it is a known fortnight, and a Tuesday-in-March showing does not tell you about it.
A buyer expecting an old Austin bungalow street
More of what is for sale in Zilker is a condominium than a house, and the median build year of the inventory is well into this century. The 1940s cottages exist, they trade quickly, and they are not the typical listing. What is typical is a newer unit at a newer price.
Someone who wants the park without the traffic
Barton Springs Road and Lamar carry the whole city to the park on a warm weekend, and the streets between them are the shortcut. The interior blocks north of Bluebonnet are quieter than anything near the intersections, and a buyer who cares should drive both at four on a Saturday in May.

Drag to pan, pinch or use the buttons to zoom. Hover a price for a preview and click it for the listing, or tap it on a touchscreen. Every one of these is also in the grid above.

Working here

The ordinance and the calendar

Two things constrain a Zilker property that constrain almost nowhere else, and both are knowable in advance. The Save Our Springs ordinance governs what a lot here can be covered with, which is the thing that quietly decides whether the addition, the garage apartment or the pool you have in mind is possible at all. It is a number attached to your parcel and it is worth having before you write an offer, not after an architect has drawn something.

The other is the calendar. Austin City Limits and the rest of the park’s season change access, parking and noise for specific, predictable weeks, and they move showings as well. If you are selling, the listing date is worth choosing around it. If you are buying, visiting only on a quiet Sunday will give you an incomplete picture of what you are agreeing to, and I will tell you to come back on a weekend when the park is full.

If that is the kind of help you want on a purchase or a sale here, start a conversation.

Questions about Zilker, Austin 78704

Which blocks suit what you are after, what the tradeoffs actually are, and whether this is the right area for you at all.

Luke Allen

Licensed Texas REALTOR, License #788149

254-718-2567luke@austinmdg.com
MLS GRID logo slot

Listings courtesy of Unlock MLS as distributed by MLS GRID

Based on information submitted to the MLS GRID as of October 16, 2026 at 4:40 PM CDT. All data obtained from various sources and may not have been verified by broker or MLS GRID.

Any use or search of data on the website, other than by a consumer looking to purchase real estate, is prohibited.

Alex Bartram, Designated Broker, TREC License #615893

Austin Marketing + Development Group LLC, TREC License #9014959

1401 West Ave Ste B, Austin, TX 78701

Luke Allen, Licensed Texas REALTOR, License #788149

Equal Housing Opportunity

lukeallenaustin.com