Living in Barton Creek & Lost Creek 78735 — A Buyer's Guide from Crystal Kilpatrick

78735 sits west of MoPac between Bee Cave Road (RM 2244) on the north and Southwest Parkway / US 290 on the south. The two anchor neighborhoods are Barton Creek — a series of gated sections built around the four 18-hole courses of Barton Creek Country Club, primarily from the mid-1980s forward — and Lost Creek, an unincorporated hillside neighborhood west of MoPac that filled in mostly between the 1970s and the 1990s.

Detached single-family is the dominant housing type. Lost Creek leans toward 1970s–90s contemporary and ranch homes on steep, wooded lots. Barton Creek leans toward custom estate homes inside gated sections, with a band of condominiums and townhomes clustered around the Omni Barton Creek Resort along Barton Club Drive.

• Direct access to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, including the Hill of Life trailhead at the end of Camp Craft Road and the western tributary trails that drop down to Barton Creek itself.
• Barton Creek Country Club's four 18-hole courses (Fazio Foothills, Fazio Canyons, Crenshaw Cliffside, and the Palmer Lakeside in nearby Spicewood), plus the Omni Barton Creek Resort spa and tennis facilities.
• MoPac and Loop 360 on two sides — downtown Austin in fifteen to twenty minutes off-peak, Westlake retail and Bee Cave Road dining within five.

• 78735 is split between Eanes ISD and Austin ISD. Lost Creek is largely Eanes; sections of Barton Creek and the Oak Hill edge fall into AISD. Confirm the attendance zone for the specific address — moving one street can change districts.
• Barton Creek Country Club membership is separate from buying a home in Barton Creek. Some sections require a club application; others don't. Confirm club status, initiation fees, and HOA dues address-by-address before you write an offer.
• Loop 360 backs up at the Pennybacker Bridge and 2222 during peak hours, and the MoPac / US 290 interchange at the Y in Oak Hill can add ten to fifteen minutes to a southbound commute. Drive both routes at your real commute hours before committing.

78735 is one of the few Austin-area ZIPs split across two school districts. Most of Lost Creek is in Eanes ISD, with Forest Trail Elementary located inside the neighborhood and feeding to Hill Country Middle and Westlake High. Sections of Barton Creek and the Oak Hill edge of 78735 fall within Austin ISD, feeding to Oak Hill Elementary, Small Middle School, and Bowie High School.

District lines and feeder patterns are revisited periodically. Verify the current assignment for any specific Barton Creek or Lost Creek address using both the Eanes ISD and Austin ISD attendance-zone tools before relying on it for an offer.

MoPac (Loop 1) runs along the eastern edge of 78735 and carries most of the downtown commute — fifteen to twenty minutes to the central business district off-peak, longer at morning and evening peaks. Loop 360 (Capital of Texas Highway) handles north-south travel toward Westlake, 2222, and the 183 corridor on the way to The Domain or northwest Austin.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is generally a 25–30-minute drive via Loop 360 to SH 71. Expect peak-time slowdowns at the Pennybacker (Loop 360) bridge and the MoPac / US 290 interchange at the Y in Oak Hill — measure your specific address with a current map app at your real commute time.

• Barton Creek Square. The closest regional mall, just east in 78746 at MoPac and Capital of Texas Highway — anchored by Dillard's, Macy's, and Nordstrom, with full-line department stores and a Cinemark.
• Barton Creek Country Club. Four 18-hole courses across two campuses, a member clubhouse, tennis, and the social hub for much of the gated Barton Creek section.
• Downtown Austin. Roughly 15 minutes east via MoPac for the Capitol complex, the central business district, and the Lady Bird Lake hike-and-bike trail at Zilker.
• Wimberley & Driftwood. 30–45 minutes west via Southwest Parkway and US 290 — Salt Lick BBQ, Driftwood wineries, the Wimberley square, and Hamilton Pool farther north.
• Barton Creek Greenbelt. Trailhead access from Camp Craft Road on the western edge of 78735 puts you on the Hill of Life and the upper-greenbelt trail system without driving into central Austin.

My recent closings in 78735 tell the whole story of this ZIP. The largest was a $3.15M listing at 4333 Verano Dr inside Barton Creek that closed in May 2025; another in the same ZIP was a $725K condo. One ZIP, two completely different products, two very different buyers.

When I'm advising clients in Barton Creek and Lost Creek, the first conversation is almost always about which side of MoPac they want to be on, and whether they want golf-club access, hillside privacy, or condo-style lock-and-leave near the resort. The school district line matters more here than in most ZIPs I work in, so I always pull the attendance zone for the specific address before we tour. Club membership status and HOA structure are the second things I check — they vary section to section inside Barton Creek, and they affect both your monthly carrying cost and your resale story.

For buyers who want to be inside the city for work but on a Hill Country lot at home, 78735 is the closest in you can get without crossing into Westlake (78746) pricing. For sellers, this ZIP rewards specificity — buyers shopping Barton Creek estates and buyers shopping Lost Creek hillsides aren't the same audience, and the marketing should reflect that.