Midlanders buying, building bigger homes in the Hill Country

Midland has long been known for having a dry, flat and desolate landscape. Many residents make the hours-long drive east and southeast to the Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio areas to get a taste of hills and water, and some of them have been buying second homes in the Highland Lakes area of the Hill Country.

With the years-long oil boom has come an increase in the size and scope of the homes that Midlanders are not only buying, but building, as they try to find a home away from home.

With the oil boom, it seems like the families are wanting homes where everybody can come and visit, said Larry Schwarze, owner of Brother Sun Builders in Kingsland. So were seeing homes with a lot more bedrooms and a lot more baths, so that the whole family, whether its the kids, the grandkids, a home that can sleep 12 or 15 people or more. For the second home market, theyve gotten bigger, because it just feels like they want the whole family to come and be able to get together.

The Highland Lakes were created from a group of dams along the Colorado River that made large reservoirs that are also used as areas of recreational use. For Ken Burns, former owner of Melco, Burnsco, and Townsend BPOs, the lake drew him to it after he retired in 2009.

West Texas is dry and tumbleweeds, and Highland Lakes is a constant level lake, said Burns, who has owned his home in the Hill Country for over two years.

Burns originally bought a single home on the lake and outfitted it with a new dock and multiple jet skis. He then bought the home next door, tore it down, and built a new guest house. While his kids visit him and his wife sometimes, he said that the house was bought mostly for himself, and that he has no intentions of selling his home in Midland anytime soon.

Amy McMurrough, marketing and public relations for McMurrough & Associates, echoed Burns reasons why West Texans move to the Highland Lakes.

Having that vacation home for Midlanders is about the water. Its about the hills and the water because youve got that whole change of scenery, she said.

Jayne Mortensen, the executive director of professional trade organization the Hill Country Builders Association, said that in the 1950s and 1960s the Hill Country area was nothing more than a big scrub lake with a bunch of fish cabins on it. The growth of Austin and San Antonio brought more people wanting access to the water to the area, and the popularity of the Hill Country grew with Texas.

But the last five years have also seen the dynamics of the Hill Country change as the focus of why people bought homes in the area morphed with their economic situations.

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Midlanders buying, building bigger homes in the Hill Country