The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is a manned-gate community of just 39 custom homes on Lake Austin, often called the most expensive gated community in the city. I've worked this street for 20 years and know it as well as anyone selling here.
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Johnny Ronca
SERHANT. Luxury Associate Broker
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Last updated: October 3, 2026 · By Johnny Ronca, SERHANT. Luxury Associate Broker
Your Mount Bonnell Shores broker
Johnny Ronca
Luxury Associate Broker, SERHANT. · 20+ years in Austin · 300+ closings · $250M+ in sales · 5.0★ across 100+ verified reviews
What clients say
“Johnny not only helped me buy a great home in Lakeway at a great price back in January of 2021 but he then helped me sell that same house for over $200K of what we purchased it for only 9 months later. Johnny helped us get an offer that was $50K over our asking price. We are extremely happy with Johnny as our "go-to" guy for anything related to real estate.”
Ryan B. · Lakeway buyer & seller
“Johnny guided us to our dream home. He understood exactly what we were looking for and he made the process flow smoothly and gracefully. I never imagined buying a house could feel so easeful! We are so grateful we had Johnny to show us just how smooth the process can be!”
Brandilyn B. · Lake Travis buyer
“I am so grateful that my family and I found Johnny! Johnny is incredibly hardworking, knowledgeable, and detail-oriented, and he TRULY cares about his clients. He worked nonstop to help us find our perfect home and we couldn’t be happier with the results of his hustle and care.”
Julie H. · Austin buyer
More verified reviews on Zillow (5.0★).
Key Takeaways
With only 39 homes behind the gate and roughly one closing a year, the Island trades almost entirely on relationships. I stay in touch with owners here year-round, on and off the market, so I usually know who's thinking about selling before a sign ever goes up.
Johnny Ronca · (512) 797-0965 · [email protected]
(Anonymized examples — reach out for what's actually available this week.)
Pocket Listings — Not on Zillow
I keep a running list of Island at Mount Bonnell Shores and greater Lake Austin owners who'd sell for the right number but haven't listed.
Recent activity here has ranged from the mid-$4Ms to the high-$6Ms depending on lot and dock. Call me before you search anywhere else — with only 39 homes on the Island, waiting for the next public listing can mean waiting years.
Short answer: The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is too small for a median of its own: one home closed through the MLS between January 2025 and October 2, 2026, at $4,550,000 in 2026. For context, here is the Lake Austin waterfront market across the corridor’s four main ZIP codes. Like for like, no size band had five or more comparable resales in both years, so the same-size table below shows counts rather than medians.
| Lake Austin waterfront (78703, 78730, 78733, 78746) | Sales | Median close | Median $/sq ft | Median days on market | Close ÷ original list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All single-family · 2025 (full year) | 13 | $4,962,500 | $1,107.01 | 121 | 87.4% |
| All single-family · 2026 (Jan 1–Oct 2) | 6 | $5,882,500 | $1,641.51 | 294 | 88.5% |
| Same months of 2025 (Jan 1–Oct 2) | 9 | $5,265,000 | $1,064.51 | 121 | 90.9% |
| Last 90 days (Jul 4–Oct 2, 2026) | 1 (too few for a median) | — | — | — | — |
Every row compares the same kind of home, year against year: single-family resales with 3+ bedrooms, 2+ full baths and a 2+ car garage, built 1981–2011, with new construction left out. Each size band runs 20% either side of 2,000, 3,000, 4,500 and 6,750 square feet, the way an appraiser brackets a subject home.
| Home size | 2025 sales | 2025 median close | 2025 $/sq ft | 2026 sales (Jan 1–Oct 2) | 2026 median close | 2026 $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large luxury · 3,600–5,400 sq ft | 5 | $4,962,500 | $1,039.27 | 3 | — | — |
| Estate · 5,400–8,100 sq ft | 2 | — | — | 0 | — | — |
A dash means fewer than five sales in that band that year, so no median is published. Also left out: 6 resales built outside 1981–2011 and 1 outside 1,600–8,100 sq ft.
Across Lake Austin waterfront, the median 2026 sale took 294 days against 121 in 2025, and sellers closed at 88.5% of original list price, so a long marketing time on the Island is normal for this market, not a warning sign. See the full Lake Austin waterfront guide for the wider market.
Source: Unlock MLS (ACTRIS) via Matrix, pulled October 2, 2026. Closed single-family sales flagged as waterfront in ZIPs 78703, 78730, 78733 and 78746 (the Island’s own ZIP, 78731, is not part of this set); the Island count is closed single-family sales on the Island, ZIP 78731. 2025 = full year; 2026 = January 1 to October 2, 2026. Medians, not averages. Sales counts are not a trend on their own because 2026 is a partial year; compare against the same months of 2025. Private and off-market sales that never reached the MLS are not included. Like-for-like rows use a second MLS search of the same area limited to 3+ bedrooms, 2+ full baths and 2+ garage spaces; resales only, built 1981–2011 (the 30-year span that holds the most resales in this area); new construction reported separately. Compiled and analyzed by Johnny Ronca, Luxury Associate Broker, SERHANT. Compare every neighborhood in my Austin 2025 vs 2026 price table.
Metro context: ~$440K median, ~4.7 months inventory, ~67 days DOM. The Island isn't a slower version of that market — with 39 homes and roughly one sale a year, it barely behaves like a market at all in the traditional sense.
I've been selling Austin luxury real estate for 20 years, and the Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is one of those addresses where, when someone tells me they live there, I immediately know they value privacy and water over almost everything else — because getting in requires passing a manned gate at Mt. Bonnell Road and Island Cove, and staying requires being comfortable that almost nobody around you will ever sell.
The community sits on a peninsula between Mount Bonnell Road to the east and Lake Austin to the west, just below the bluffs of Covert Park at Mount Bonnell. It's Austin ISD rather than Eanes, zip 78731, and every one of its 39 lots touches water on a lake whose level the LCRA holds constant year-round through the Mansfield and Tom Miller Dams — unlike Lake Travis, which can drop dramatically in a drought year. That single fact is a bigger deal to boat owners here than almost anything else about the neighborhood.
Mature cypress, oak, elm, and cottonwood trees cover most lots, and homes range from roughly 5,000 to 12,000+ square feet, mixing long-held original construction with newer full custom builds.
The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is zoned to Austin ISD, specifically Highland Park Elementary (rated 10/10), Lamar Middle School (rated 9/10), and McCallum High School (rated 8/10) — a notably strong assignment for an Austin ISD zone. (Confirm assigned campuses for any specific home.)
The privacy-first buyer — wants a manned gate, no through-traffic, and neighbors who've mostly owned their homes for decades.
The serious boater — cares more about a guaranteed, constant lake level than about square footage, and treats the dock as the primary amenity.
The downtown-adjacent executive — wants waterfront acreage without a 30-minute commute, and the Island's under-10-minute run to downtown is hard to match at this price point.
Downtown Austin runs under 10 minutes outside of peak hours — one of the shortest downtown commutes of any gated Lake Austin community. The Domain is roughly 20 minutes. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is about 25–30 minutes depending on the route.
The Island sits just below Covert Park at Mount Bonnell, one of Austin's best sunset and skyline overlooks, and minutes from Mayfield Park. Westwood Country Club is nearby for tennis, golf, fitness, and dining. For restaurants, residents lean on Uchiko, Fonda San Miguel, and Andiamo, all a short drive away. As on most of Lake Austin, the dock is the real amenity — the country club membership is optional, the water access isn't.
My honest take: if a manned gate and a genuinely constant lake level matter more to you than price per square foot, the Island is close to unmatched in Austin. If you want water access without waiting years for one of only 39 homes to trade, Rivercrest is the more realistic path onto Lake Austin. I can walk you through both so you can weigh the tradeoff yourself.
The Island rewards patience and relationships more than any other Lake Austin community I work — with one sale in the past year, you're not competing against active inventory, you're waiting for the right owner to be ready. After 20 years and 300+ closings in this market, I've built the kind of relationships here that turn into a phone call before a listing ever goes public.
“Johnny did an incredible job helping me to negotiate the price down on this house. We got tens of thousands of dollars in discounts that I would not have had without his support. He remained available to me through several months of escrow while the house was being fixed up and was incredibly helpful in identifying new contractors.”
Andrew H. · Austin buyer
Looking beyond Island at Mount Bonnell Shores? My Austin pocket listings page carries the current off-market count for every area I cover, how these homes reach me before the MLS, and a short form to tell me exactly what you are looking for.
Off-market access
Ask me what is quietly for sale in Mount Bonnell Shores
Not every home here reaches Zillow or the public MLS. Some sellers will trade privately but will not sign a listing agreement, and those homes only surface through relationships. Mine run 20 years deep — a cross-brokerage network, Austin Luxury Network access, and Johnny’s Off Market Private Luxury Listings. Some of the coolest and most coveted luxury properties in Austin only ever sell as pocket listings.
Tell me your price range and must-haves and I’ll send you what matches — today, not when it hits the market. Contact me to see which gems match your specific needs, and what I expect to come up in Mount Bonnell Shores in the next 90 days.
More from clients
“We were so fortunate to have found Johnny Ronca 7 years ago when we bought our first home in Austin. He helped us find the right house in the right neighborhood, for the right price. He was so great we came back for his expertise when it was time to sell that first home and to help us with the purchase of our next home. Our family has definitely found our lifetime realtor.”
India G. · Repeat client, buyer & seller
“He sent us tailored options that considered all of our must-haves and was patient with us being super picky too. Once we found The One he went above and beyond to get our offer accepted within our budget — on a Saturday afternoon too! It was a really tight timeline before the holidays and before baby was born, and there’s no way we could have done it without Johnny!”
Margeaux O. · Austin buyer
“Johnny Ronca has been an invaluable asset throughout the sale of our old home and the purchase of our dream home. During the sale, Johnny facilitated a bidding war and got an all-cash offer significantly over our asking price. He helped us find and strategize our way into our new dream home and negotiated a way for us to move in prior to closing.”
Buyer & Seller · Austin buyer & seller
More verified reviews on Zillow (5.0★).
Thinking of selling?
What is your Island at Mount Bonnell Shores home worth right now?
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Closing-Day Video Testimonial
“So we just closed on our very first house with Austin’s best real estate agent… I don’t know how people do this alone. If y’all are looking for a real estate agent, this is the only one. Look no further.”
Josh Trent · Host of the Wellness + Wisdom podcast · Austin homebuyer
Johnny Ronca is widely regarded as a top realtor serving Island at Mount Bonnell Shores. He is a Luxury Associate Broker with SERHANT. with 20+ years in the Austin market, 300+ closings, $250M+ in sales and 100+ five-star reviews, and he publishes the closed-sale numbers for Island at Mount Bonnell Shores straight from the MLS on this page instead of estimates. Call or text Johnny at 512-797-0965.
It's a manned-gate community of 39 custom homes on a peninsula on Lake Austin, near Mount Bonnell in the 78731 zip code, often described as the most expensive gated community in Austin.
The Island at Mount Bonnell Shores is zoned to Austin ISD, specifically Highland Park Elementary (10/10), Lamar Middle School (9/10), and McCallum High School (8/10).
Only one home closed in the trailing 12 months, at $4,550,000 (~$586/sqft). Current active and pending listings run $6.5M–$6.9M, averaging closer to $864/sqft.
Lake Austin's level is managed by the LCRA through the Mansfield and Tom Miller Dams, keeping it constant year-round — unlike Lake Travis, which can drop significantly during drought conditions.
There are 39 homes total, which is why so few come to market in any given year.
Under 10 minutes outside of peak traffic — one of the shortest downtown commutes of any gated waterfront community in Austin.
Yes, it has a manned gate at the intersection of Mount Bonnell Road and Island Cove.
Inventory is extremely limited — often just one sale a year across all 39 homes — and days on market tend to run long once a home does list, since the buyer pool is narrow and patient. Buyers should expect to wait, sometimes years, for the right property.
Rivercrest Real Estate · Rob Roy Real Estate · Cat Mountain Real Estate · Tarrytown Real Estate · Lake Austin Real Estate
With only 39 homes and roughly one closing a year, a real conversation about the Island at Mount Bonnell Shores usually starts long before anything hits MLS. Johnny Ronca · (512) 797-0965 · [email protected] — or book a quick call: calendar.app.google/Mmtr3L3D16VRD7fQ9
Johnny Ronca
SERHANT. Luxury Associate Broker · 20+ Years · 300+ Transactions · $250M+ Sales
📞 (512) 797-0965 | ✉️ [email protected] | 📅 Book a call
Guides, market reports and local reporting from my blog on Island at Mount Bonnell Shores and the surrounding area:
Your insider guide to buying smart in Austin's market. 11 chapters covering undervalued neighborhoods, 2/1 buydown strategies, off-market deals, school rankings, and expert tactics from a Top 1% agent with 300+ closed transactions.
I am committed to guiding you every step of the way—whether you're buying a home, selling a property, or securing a mortgage. Whatever your needs, I've got you covered.
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