Retiring in Granite Shoals, Texas

Retiring in Granite Shoals: overview

Granite Shoals is in Burnet County, Texas, within the Highland Lakes region.

Granite Shoals is a home rule city on the east shore of Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (Lake LBJ) in the Highland Lakes region. The city's history page places it 44 miles northwest of Austin and 6 miles west of Marble Falls, with an area of about 5 square miles, and describes it as a residential, resort and retirement community known as the City of Parks. The American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 profile counts 5,247 residents with a median age of 46.1; 1,073 residents, or 20.4 percent, are 65 or older.

For retirees the draw is lake access without lakefront prices: since most of the shoreline is privately owned, the city's parks provide free lake access. The tradeoffs are a high share of vacant homes, a larger share of mobile and manufactured housing than most Highland Lakes towns, a city tax rate of 0.5339 per $100 for 2026, and hospitals in neighboring Marble Falls and Burnet rather than inside the city. The sections below give what public sources publish, with the year of each figure.

Cost of living in Granite Shoals

The ACS profile for Granite Shoals city estimates 2,571 housing units, with 22.8 percent vacant, and 80.9 percent of occupied units owner-occupied and 19.1 percent rented. The estimated median value of an owner-occupied home is $194,500, median selected monthly owner costs are $1,591 for homes with a mortgage and $480 without one, and median gross rent is $1,399. Estimated median household income is $69,602, and 20.1 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population has no health insurance coverage. These are citywide five-year estimates for all ages; lakefront homes can sit far above the median, and prices have moved since the survey period.

The ACS economic profile shows 38.4 percent of households with Social Security income, averaging $22,951, and 26.1 percent with retirement income, averaging $56,607. Texas has no state personal income tax, so retirement income is not taxed at the state level (see Texas retirement taxes). The city's tax page also states a sales tax rate of 8.25 percent, of which the State of Texas receives 6.25 percent and the city 2 percent, and a 7 percent tax on hotels and short-term rentals. A vacancy rate of 22.8 percent points to second homes and rentals, so ask neighbors how many houses are occupied year-round.

Property taxes in Granite Shoals

The City of Granite Shoals says it contracts with the Burnet County Central Appraisal District for appraisal and tax collection, and that Granite Shoals property owners pay taxes assessed by multiple taxing authorities. The city's notice about 2026 tax rates states a no-new-revenue rate of $0.5386 per $100 and a voter-approval rate of $0.5339 per $100. The Burnet Central Appraisal District table of adopted rates for tax year 2026 lists the City of Granite Shoals at 0.5339, compared with 0.5424 for 2025, 0.5417 for 2024, 0.508 for 2023 and 0.568 for 2022. The Texas Comptroller's 2025 city file lists the same 0.5424, made up of 0.3983 for maintenance and operations and 0.1441 for debt service.

Other units add to the city's rate. For tax year 2026 the district table lists Burnet County General at 0.3009 and Burnet County Special at 0.0532, Burnet Consolidated Independent School District at 0.8673 and Marble Falls Independent School District at 0.8805. Which school district serves a Granite Shoals address depends on the parcel, so confirm it on the tax statement before comparing homes. As arithmetic only, the city and county rates add to about 0.8880 per $100 (0.5339 plus 0.3541) for 2026, and with the Burnet CISD rate about 1.7553; on $250,000 of taxable value the city and county alone would be about $2,220 before exemptions and special districts.

Exemption amounts need to be read from the district's table for the tax year. The text layer of that table does not separate columns reliably, so the amount a given unit offers at 65 should be confirmed with the district. The Granite Shoals row carries a 5,000 figure and an entry marked (Fz). The Texas Comptroller states that Tax Code Section 11.13(b) requires school districts to provide a $140,000 residence homestead exemption and Section 11.13(c) an additional $60,000 for homeowners aged 65 or older or disabled, and that any taxing unit may adopt local-option exemptions, with a minimum of $3,000 for the age-65 option. A school-tax ceiling applies at 65, but a city or county ceiling applies only if that unit adopted one; see the guides on property taxes and appraisal districts and the homestead and age-65 exemption and school tax ceiling. Rates are adopted each budget year.

Insurance and risk in Granite Shoals

Lake LBJ is a pass-through lake. LCRA states that Wirtz Dam creates Lake LBJ, that Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Austin lakes have no capacity to store floodwaters, typically operate within about a foot and can rise well above normal levels during floods, and that rainfall in Kimble, Mason, Llano and parts of other counties in the LBJ watershed can send floodwaters into Lake LBJ. LCRA's flood page lists Lake LBJ as full at 825 feet above mean sea level with a target operating range of 824.4 to 825 feet and showed no gate operations expected at any dam on October 8, 2026. LCRA states that FEMA and local officials, not LCRA, designate floodplains, so a waterfront or creek-side lot should be checked against the FEMA flood map and the lot's elevation above the lake.

FEMA states that most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, that flood insurance is a separate policy and that an NFIP policy typically has a 30-day waiting period. The Texas Department of Insurance advises filing a claim as soon as you can if hail or strong winds damage a home or car. No premium is quoted because premiums vary by insurer, roof, claims history and address.

The city's fire department reports an Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating of 3 within Granite Shoals and Highland Haven, a combination volunteer and paid staff, four firefighters on duty around the clock and an average response time around five minutes. It responds to structural, vehicle and wildland fires, and the city describes it as a medical first responder alongside Marble Falls Area EMS. The Burnet County website carried a banner on October 8, 2026 stating that a burn ban was in effect for all of Burnet County. The Texas A&M Forest Service is the lead wildfire agency in Texas and publishes homeowner guidance.

Healthcare access in Granite Shoals

There is no hospital inside Granite Shoals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) file for Burnet County lists Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - Marble Falls at 810 W Highway 71, an acute care hospital with emergency services and an overall rating of 4, and Ascension Seton Highland Lakes on Highway 281 South in Burnet, a critical access hospital with emergency services and an overall rating of 5. Ascension says the Burnet campus has a full-service hospital with 24/7 emergency care and a Level IV trauma center with an intensive care unit.

The city's fire page says the Granite Shoals fire department serves as medical first responders to assist Marble Falls Area EMS, so the department assists Marble Falls Area EMS rather than replacing it. Drive times to either hospital depend on the route and time of day, so test the trip. See the guide to Texas healthcare geography and Medicare for how to plan around plan networks, and the Austin page for the large-city alternatives.

Climate in Granite Shoals

NOAA publishes 1991-2020 climate normals for the Austin Bergstrom Airport station, which is a regional reference and not a Granite Shoals measurement. At that station the normal daily high is 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit in January, 96.1 in July and 97.0 in August, and the normal low is 37.7 in January. The monthly counts of days at or above 90 degrees are 24.4 in June, 28.4 in July and 29.4 in August. Monthly precipitation normals range from 1.89 inches in February to 5.00 inches in May.

Drought is the recurring condition in the Highland Lakes. The Texas Water Development Board's drought dashboard, for a map dated October 6, 2026, shows 82.00 percent of Texas in at least moderate drought and 13.49 percent in extreme drought or worse. The city operates its own drinking water utility, and its utility page posts water quality reports and source assessments dated June 2026; ask the city for its drought contingency plan and what each stage means for a lawn. The statewide guide to heat, humidity and climate by region gives more context.

Lifestyle and recreation in Granite Shoals

The city says it has nineteen parks, fifteen of them on the shore of Lake LBJ and eight with boat launch ramps. Boat launch passes are complimentary for Granite Shoals residents, and non-residents pay a $10 fee. Quarry Park, next to City Hall, has the Manzano Hike, Bike and Run Trail and a multi-sports center with soccer, basketball, volleyball and pickleball courts. The city also operates a short-term rental permit program, which matters to anyone who plans to rent a house part of the year or who will live beside rentals.

Retirees who want a golf club or a larger town center can compare the neighboring Highland Lakes places Horseshoe Bay and Marble Falls, and Burnet for the Highway 281 hospital.

Housing in Granite Shoals

The ACS profile shows 63.8 percent of housing units as single-family detached homes, 2.8 percent attached, 26.5 percent mobile homes and 1.4 percent in buildings of 20 or more units. By age, 15.3 percent of units were built from 2000 to 2009, 8.1 percent from 2010 to 2019 and 2.1 percent in 2020 or later, and 13.0 percent from 1990 to 1999. The city's history says the original city comprised sections of the Sherwood Shores subdivision, created in 1962, so many lots date from that subdivision. Buyers should check lot size, water service and deed restrictions, and for a manufactured home the foundation, anchoring and insurance terms.

Places near Granite Shoals

• Marble FallsA Burnet County city on Lake Marble Falls with a full-service hospital inside the city, a younger and more renter-heavy population than the lake resort towns, and city water restrictions that have recently moved between stages.
• Horseshoe BayA Lake LBJ resort city that straddles Llano and Burnet counties, with the oldest resident profile of any town in the Highland Lakes, a golf-club culture, a Public Improvement District assessment on some lots, and its nearest listed hospital in Marble Falls.
• BurnetA Burnet County city of about 6,600 residents with a hospital campus inside the city, a lower housing cost than the lake resort towns around it, a city property-tax rate that has stayed flat for five years, and a Highland Lakes setting that depends on rain far upstream.

Guides relevant to Granite Shoals

• Texas healthcare geography and Medicare network considerations
• Texas homestead exemption, the age-65 exemption and the school tax ceiling
• Texas property taxes and appraisal districts: how to compare actual total tax bills