Here’s what $3.5M buys in Austin

Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a column that explores what one can rent or buy for a set dollar amount in various Austin neighborhoods. Today’s price: $3.5 million (or thereabouts). Vote for your favorite below.

Old West Austin

Via Gottesman Residential Real Estate

1107 Gaston Avenue

While clearly updated, this home in Pemberton Heights captures the essence of 1930s Old West Austin, which is when and where it was built. Situated on a lot measuring more than 0.85 acres full of Live Oaks, the house backs to Pease Park and has large outdoor entertainment areas as well a pool. The two-story house has five bedrooms, all with ensuite bathrooms, as well as an additional powder room and a flex space with a full bathroom and private entrance. The asking price is $3.85 million.

Bouldin Creek

Via Redfin

1608 South Second Street

South Austin’s luxury entry this week is a new two-story contemporary—which has a junior luxury guest house in back—asking $3.45 million. Both houses are sleek and modern, with stucco, wood, and steel exteriors. There’s also plenty of smart technology to go around, along with luxury finishes, floor-to-ceiling windows, and sliding doors, high-end kitchen appliances, and herringbone oak flooring. Totals for the main home and guest house: seven bathrooms, six and half bathrooms, 4,956 square feet.

Downtown

Via Moreland Properties

1802 Lavaca Street

Built in 1876, the landmarked McDonald-McGowan House is located Downtown, just south of the University of Texas campus. The three-story home has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, with a total of 4,322 square feet of living space. It features wood floors, high windows, built-in bookshelves, crown molding, French doors, and three fireplaces, as well as a large backyard garden and separate carriage house, a balcony, a brick patio, a gazebo, and parking for five cars. It’s asking $3.695 million.

Balcones Park

Via Gottesman Residential Real Estate

3401 Mount Bonnell Drive

Priced right at $3.5 million, this swanky number in Balcones Park was originally built in 1962 but was masterfully transformed by Webber+Studio—perhaps in 2015, when it was featured on the AIA tour. The 5,557-square-foot contemporary has five bedrooms and five and half bathrooms. It’s located on more than half an acre of land and has abundant Live Oaks shading its outdoor entertainment areas and pool.

Lake Austin

Via Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty

3612 Pearce Road

Buyers who value eccentricity with their luxury might be pleased to learn that the “Mayan mod” property near Lake Austin is still on the market, asking $3.295 million. The home is a bit of an art compound that features large expanses of white walls suitable for displaying a vast art collection, as well as 3-foot-thick limestone walls and soaring skylights designed to reference more ancient structural forms, one supposes. Set on a forested, 6.11-acre lot, the 6,665-square-foot villa has four bedrooms and four bathrooms as well as groin-vault ceilings, polished concrete floors, and six fireplaces. There’s also a guest house and a studio.