Explore The Neighborhood
Round Rock is a city of its own rather than a stretch of Austin suburb, and the difference shows up in the practical things. It has a downtown with a working main street, a regional park of about 670 acres, a Triple-A ballpark, the largest indoor waterpark in the country, and about seven miles between it and Dell’s global headquarters. Austin is twenty-eight miles south when you want it.
20 Tate Lane sits on the east side, off Gattis School Road near Paloma Lake, on a quiet residential lane rather than a corridor. This page is the map from that front door: what is close, what is worth the drive, and what your week actually looks like from here. Every distance and every drive time on it was routed on real roads from this address, and every one of them is labelled off-peak, because that is what they are.
Where to Start
Old Settlers Park
670 acres of ballfields, ponds and trail, 1.9 miles out. Parts are under construction into 2027.
1.9 mi/7 min off-peak Read the guide
Kalahari Resorts
The largest indoor waterpark in the country, nine minutes away. Day passes, no room required.
3.8 mi/9 min off-peak Kalahari Resorts
Dell Diamond
The Round Rock Express, Triple-A affiliate of the Rangers. A weeknight seat costs less than a film.
3.4 mi/7 min off-peak Express schedule
Premium Outlets
A hundred-odd outlet stores on Interstate 35, eleven minutes out. The errand run and the shopping trip in one stop.
5.6 mi/11 min off-peak Premium Outlets
Round Rock Schools
Zoned to Redbud Elementary, Hopewell Middle and Stony Point High. The district rates B.
2.7 mi/7 min off-peak Read the guide
Dell, Samsung, Tesla
Dell at 7.1 miles, Samsung Taylor at 14.9, Tesla at 28.8. Highway 130 makes the far two workable.
7.1 mi/15 min off-peak Read the guide
Round Rock Donuts
The food near the front door is chains. Round Rock Donuts is the landmark, and the rest is downtown.
5.9 mi/13 min off-peak Where to eat
The Round Rock
The table-shaped slab in Brushy Creek that marked the wagon crossing and gave the town its name in 1854.
6.9 mi/14 min off-peak Things to doWhat’s great about living in Round Rock
- The schools are the draw. Round Rock Independent School District rates B from the Texas Education Agency, composite 87, for 2024-25.
- You are close to the work. Dell is 7.1 miles. Samsung’s Taylor plant is 14.9. Tesla is 28.8, and there is a toll road that makes it bearable.
- The parks are real parks. Old Settlers Park is 1.9 miles away and big enough to spend a day in.
- Austin living without Austin prices. Downtown is 28.2 miles when you want it and not on your street when you do not.
- No state income tax. Texas does not levy one.
- A downtown that still works. A main street with restaurants on it, thirteen minutes south, rather than a strip of arterial.
Life on a Saturday Living at Tate Lane
Morning
- 9:00 amOut the door and into Old Settlers Park, seven minutes away. Close enough that nobody has to be convinced to go.
A $230 million parks bond that Round Rock voters approved in 2023 has several sections under construction into 2027, and part of Harrell Parkway is one-way while it happens. Check what is open first.
- 10:00 amPlaygrounds, fishing ponds and enough trail to tire out a five-year-old.
- 11:30 amCostco and the H-E-B on University Oaks, both about ten minutes from there, so the week’s shopping happens on the way home rather than as its own trip.
Afternoon
- SummerKalahari, nine minutes away, where day passes exist and you do not have to book a room.
- Spring & autumnThe Round Rock Express at Dell Diamond, seven minutes, where a weeknight ticket costs less than a cinema seat.
- OtherwiseThe Brushy Creek Regional Trail, fourteen minutes, which runs far enough that you choose your own distance.
Evening
- 6:00 pmDinner downtown, thirteen minutes, on a main street that still works as one.
- 8:00 pmThe thing worth doing once: the actual round rock the city is named for, sitting in Brushy Creek beside the old crossing, a few minutes from where you ate.
It is a rock. Go and look at it anyway.
Questions people ask
Is Round Rock, TX a good area?
For a family renting, yes, with one caveat worth knowing up front. Round Rock Independent School District rates B from the Texas Education Agency, the parks are genuinely large, and Dell’s global headquarters is 7.1 miles from this address. The caveat is that it is a car city: transit is thin and Interstate 35 is slow at rush hour. If you want to walk to dinner, this is not that.
What are the pros and cons of living in Round Rock, Texas?
The pros: a B-rated school district, a 670-acre regional park, no state income tax, and the north Austin job market close enough to reach without Austin housing prices. The cons, stated plainly: high Williamson County property taxes, near-total car dependence, heavy Interstate 35 traffic at peak, and nightlife that mostly happens twenty-eight miles south in Austin.
Is it cheap to live in Round Rock, Texas?
Cheaper than Austin to buy, not to rent. The Census Bureau puts Round Rock’s median owner-occupied home value at $418,600 against Austin’s $555,300, and median household income higher here at $99,287 against $93,658. But median gross rent runs $1,763 in Round Rock and $1,729 in Austin. Renting here is not the discount it is often described as. All figures are American Community Survey five-year estimates, 2020 to 2024.
Is Round Rock more expensive than Austin?
On rent, marginally yes, which surprises most people. The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey puts median gross rent at $1,763 in Round Rock against $1,729 in Austin, about $34 a month higher. Round Rock is meaningfully cheaper to own in, with median home values roughly $137,000 lower. Round Rock’s rental stock is newer and skews larger, which is the likely reason the citywide median sits where it does.
What is the best neighborhood to live in Round Rock, TX?
20 Tate Lane is the best neighborhood to live in, in my opinion.