By the Texas Home Talk Editorial Team

For thirty years, if you wanted a Del Webb address near Austin, you had exactly one option: Sun City Texas in Georgetown, which opened in 1995 and has since grown into one of the largest active-adult communities in the state.

That changed in July 2025, when PulteGroup broke ground on Del Webb Austin at Lost Pines in Bastrop — the company's first new 55+ community in the Austin market in more than thirty years. Homes went on sale in early 2026.

Here is the part most listings will not tell you: as of publication, twenty families have closed out of a planned 513 homes. The amenity center — the clubhouse, the resort pool, the pickleball courts, the golf simulator — is not built. It is currently slated to open in the first quarter of 2027, which is later than the Q3 2026 date circulated when the community was announced.

That is not a reason to write Lost Pines off. Del Webb buyers typically start shopping two to three years before they actually move, and this community is priced and positioned for exactly that buyer. But it does mean the honest version of this article is a status report, not a brochure. So that is what this is.

What Is Actually Built Right Now

Del Webb's marketing describes the clubhouse and amenities in the present tense. They do not exist yet. Here is the honest status of every amenity, confirmed with the Lost Pines sales center in July 2026.

Homes and Pricing at Del Webb Lost Pines

Lost Pines offers twelve floor plans across three home collections: the Scenic Series (the entry point), the Distinctive Series (the mid-tier), and the Echelon Series (the largest homes and the biggest lot premiums). Every base price below is taken directly from the community's July 2026 price sheet.

Scenic Series — from $325,990

Distinctive Series — from $411,990

Echelon Series — from $520,990

Base price is not the real price

This deserves emphasis, because it is where new-construction buyers consistently miscalculate. Those figures are base prices on a base lot with no upgrades. According to the sales center, most buyers add five to ten percent to expand the home's footprint, then spend more again at the design center on finishes.

Lot premiums stack on top of that, and they are not small. Premiums are driven by greenbelt backing, cul-de-sac position, and privacy:

• Scenic Series: roughly $2,000 to $25,000
• Distinctive Series: roughly $5,000 to $45,000
• Echelon Series: roughly $20,000 to $175,000

For a sense of the ceiling: the first home sold in the community closed at roughly $930,000. A community that starts in the $325,000s can absolutely deliver a home near a million dollars once lot and upgrades are layered in.

Builder incentives, and why they are worth asking about

Early-phase communities compete on incentives, and Lost Pines is no exception. As of July 2026 the sales center was offering flex cash — a builder credit applied toward options — at roughly $60,000 on Distinctive and Echelon homes and $45,000 on Scenic homes, with the higher tier positioned to cover the cost of a backyard pool. Rate buy-downs through the builder's affiliated lender are typically available as well.

Two cautions. First, builder incentives are promotional and change month to month; the figures above were tied to a July 2026 window and should be treated as a snapshot, not a standing offer. Second, incentives are usually structured as credits toward upgrades rather than reductions in purchase price, which affects your appraisal and your loan differently than a price cut would. Ask the sales office to put the current offer in writing and confirm exactly how it is applied.

Build time runs five to six months from contract to close. As of July 2026 there were three quick move-in homes available, and there is no resale market yet — with only twenty closings, every home available is new construction from the builder.

The MUD Tax Nobody Mentions in the Brochure

This is the most consequential number in this article, and it is the one least likely to come up on a model home tour.

Del Webb Lost Pines sits inside The Colony MUD #1D, a municipal utility district. According to Bastrop County's Truth in Taxation records, the district has levied an adopted rate of $0.85 per $100 of assessed value every year from 2017 through 2025 — nine consecutive years without a change.

Stack that on Bastrop ISD, Bastrop County, the emergency services district, and Austin Community College, and the sales center quotes an all-in rate of roughly 2.53 percent. On a $400,000 home, the MUD portion alone is about $3,400 a year, with a total tax bill in the neighborhood of $10,000 before exemptions.

For a direct comparison: Sun City Texas in Georgetown has no MUD at all. Same builder, same brand, same 55+ product, three counties apart — and one of them carries an extra $0.85 per $100 in perpetuity for the foreseeable future. On a $400,000 home that difference is roughly $3,400 every year. Over a decade, it is more than the price of a very well-optioned kitchen.

Water and sewer service is provided by the MUD. There is no PID layered on top, which is worth noting because many Austin-fringe communities carry both.

HOA Dues and What They Cover

HOA dues run $275 per month. That figure covers more than most Texas HOA dues do:

• Full lawn care — mowing, edging, and blowing
• Amenity access once the center opens
• Common area maintenance
• 1 gigabit AT&T fiber internet

Excluded: trash, water, electricity, and gas.

The association is still developer-controlled. Transition to homeowner control is expected at roughly 75 percent build-out, at which point dues could move in either direction depending on what the resident board decides. With twenty homes closed out of 513, that transition is years away.

Transfer fees and resale certificate fees have not been set — the community is too new to have processed resales. The sales center's expectation is that they will land close to Sun City's structure, but that is an expectation, not a published figure. Anyone buying should ask for those numbers in writing before closing.

Age Restrictions and Who Can Live There

Lost Pines follows standard Del Webb age-qualified rules, with one provision that is more generous than many buyers expect:

That surviving-spouse provision matters more than it might appear. Age-restricted communities vary widely in how they handle a spouse who is under the age threshold when their partner passes away, and some are considerably stricter. Confirm the exact language in the recorded covenants before you sign — a sales center summary is not a legal document.

Build-Out: How Early Is Early?

One note on acreage, because published figures conflict. PulteGroup's own announcements have described Lost Pines as both 160 acres and "more than 323 acres" in separate releases. The sales center puts the Del Webb community itself at 203 acres; the larger figure appears to reference a broader land position within The Colony.

Twenty homes closed out of 513 means buyers today are genuine pioneers. You will live on an active construction site for years. The upside is first choice of lots — and in a community where Echelon premiums reach $175,000, lot selection is not a trivial advantage.

Why Bastrop

The community is unfinished. The location is not. Bastrop is the strongest argument for Lost Pines and it is fully available today.

The Lost Pines forest

The community takes its name from the Lost Pines — a genuinely unusual stand of loblolly pine covering tens of thousands of acres, separated by roughly a hundred miles from the East Texas Piney Woods. It is a geographic outlier, and it gives Bastrop a look and feel that does not resemble the rest of Central Texas. Bastrop State Park sits within it.

Austin proximity

Lost Pines sits off Highway 71, roughly thirty miles southeast of Austin and about a half hour from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. For a relocation buyer flying in from out of state — and Del Webb draws heavily from outside Texas — that airport proximity is a practical advantage over communities north of the city.

Downtown Bastrop and the river

Bastrop has been called the most historic small town in Texas, with a walkable downtown of nineteenth-century storefronts, local restaurants, and a genuine main street. The Colorado River runs through it. The Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort is nearby.

The employment story

Bastrop is no longer a sleepy exurb. Several Elon Musk ventures have established operations in the area, including The Boring Company and X Corp. For 55+ buyers this matters less directly — but it matters a great deal for the long-term value of the house you are buying, and for the adult children who may visit.

Who Lost Pines Is Right For — and Who Should Wait

Consider buying now if: you are shopping two to three years ahead of an actual move, you want first pick of lots, you want to capture the current flex-cash incentive on the home, or you want a Del Webb address closer to the airport and the Hill Country's eastern edge than Georgetown allows.

Consider waiting if: the social calendar and finished amenities are the main reason you are buying into a 55+ community. That experience is what Sun City has spent thirty years building. At Lost Pines, it arrives in 2027 at the earliest.

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