Relocating to Austin for Google? Why Tarrytown Works

If Google is bringing you to Austin, the first real decision is where to live, and it shapes everything after it: your commute, your children’s schools, and how quickly the city starts to feel like home. Tarrytown, the established neighborhood in ZIP 78703 between MoPac and Lake Austin, is one of the first places relocating Google employees look, for a practical reason: it sits minutes from the downtown offices where Google’s Austin teams actually work.

Where Google sits, and the commute from Tarrytown

Google’s Austin presence is downtown, not a suburban campus. The company has long occupied the West Second Street tower at 500 West Second Street, and it leased the newer Block 185 tower at 601 West Second Street, the distinctive sail-shaped building on the Lady Bird Lake waterfront. Both sit in the Second Street District on the western edge of downtown. Office footprints and hybrid schedules have shifted across the tech industry in recent years, so verify your specific building, floor, and in-office days with your team before you plan a home search around them.

What matters for that search is that both towers sit on the side of downtown closest to Tarrytown. From most of the neighborhood you reach them by heading east on Enfield Road, or on Lake Austin Boulevard and Cesar Chavez, a trip that is typically short in normal conditions and rarely involves a highway. Treat any drive-time figure as approximate, since traffic, your exact street, and your building all move the number, but this is genuinely one of the shorter commutes any major Austin employer offers. Drive it yourself during a weekday rush before you commit.

Why Google people choose Tarrytown

Beyond the commute, Tarrytown fits the profile of many Google transfers: dual-income households, young families, and senior staff who want space and quiet without giving up a central address. The neighborhood is walkable in pockets, wrapped in a mature tree canopy, and anchored by Lake Austin, where Tarrytown’s western edge meets the water. Mornings can start on the Ann and Roy Butler hike-and-bike trail, and weekends often end on the lake.

For hybrid workers the location does double duty: close enough to downtown for two or three office days, calm enough that the work-from-home days feel like a retreat. That balance is a large part of why homes here hold their value and why demand rarely cools.

Schools zoned to Tarrytown

Families relocating for Google almost always ask about schools first. Most of Tarrytown is zoned to Casis Elementary on Exposition Boulevard, one of the top-rated public elementary schools in Texas: it typically ranks in the top few percent statewide and has carried a 10 out of 10 GreatSchools rating in recent years. Casis feeds O. Henry Middle School and then Austin High, a well-regarded in-town feeder pattern within Austin ISD.

Attendance zones do change, and a boundary can split a single street, so confirm the exact zoning for any specific address with Austin ISD before you write an offer. See our overview of Tarrytown schools and homes zoned to Casis Elementaryfor the details that drive so much of the neighborhood’s demand.

Homes and cost of living

Tarrytown is a luxury micro-market. The median sale price has run roughly $1.5M to $1.65M over the trailing twelve months in mid-2026 according to Redfin and Homes.com, though the range is wide: modest original homes on smaller lots trade well below the median, while renovated estates and Lake Austin frontage run into the multiple millions.

Texas has no state income tax, which changes the math for anyone arriving from a higher-tax state such as California, where much of Google’s workforce is based. That advantage is partly offset by property taxes, which run at an effective rate of roughly 2.07 percent of assessed value in this area, a meaningful annual figure on a home at these prices. Our cost of living in Tarrytown post walks through the full trade, and a home valuation can anchor your budget to real numbers rather than a national average.

Making the move

Tarrytown inventory is thin. In a given month only a handful of homes may be listed inside the boundary, and the best ones often sell quickly or trade off market before they ever reach the MLS. If you are moving on a Google start date, two things help most: get fully pre-approved early so you can act without delay, and work with an agent who watches this specific market daily and hears about homes before they list.

Start with current Tarrytown homes for sale, read our moving to Tarrytown guide for the relocation logistics, and browse the other employer relocation guides if a partner is joining a different company.

This site is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google. Commute and campus details reflect public reporting and should be verified with your employer before you rely on them.