This heat map shows all of the Austin ZIP codes.  The colors indicate the population density.  The darker the zip code, the higher the density.  As you can see, most people don't actually live in the downtown area. The highest concentrations are in the sub-urbs immediately to the north and to the south.

Round Rock, the city to the North East has a somewhat higher population density than the areas between Austin and Round Rock largely in part due to the housing development which has taken place.  The development has, in large part, been due to Dell Computer having setup their home office in Round Rock.

The pale areas are the areas with the lowest population density.  In these places, you will find individual homeowners living on large tracts of land.  The areas to the South West, such as the city called Dripping Springs, is undergoining development.  The large tracts are being subdivided into smaller tracts.  This is increasing the population density, there is is still a lot of land left. 

If you are looking to live in an area far away from the hussle and bussle of a city, even as small as ours, affordable housing with easy road access can be found in the North West beyond Cedar Park, the far West beyond the lake and the far East going toward Bastrop.

If you are looking to invest, we tend to recommend micro-market areas with population densities which are about to reach the same levels of the dark green areas.  That means, the areas we will recommend will border those dark green areas.  We aren't the only ones to recognize this.  Take a drive around those areas and you will find large amounts of investment.