Buying Property on an Island in Texas: The Long Island Village Guide

If you want to own property on the water in South Texas without paying South Padre Island's beachfront prices, Long Island Village is the most economical way in — and most people outside the Valley have never heard of it.

What LIV actually is

Long Island Village is a gated community on the bay side, directly across the water from South Padre Island, built around a 9-hole golf course. The land is owned outright by property owners here — it's not a land lease situation, which matters a lot when you're comparing this to other resort-style communities where you own the structure but lease the ground under it.

For what it costs, the amenity list is honestly surprising: a restaurant, multiple pools, a community center, a private boat ramp, tennis and basketball courts, and more. And then there's the detail that makes this place genuinely unique — LIV is connected by one of the last operational swing bridges left in the country. Driving over it and watching it actually swing open to let boat traffic through is not something you experience anywhere else in South Texas. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of detail that tells you this is a real, distinct place, not just another gated subdivision.

Why it's so economical

The pricing here only works because of the sheer number of properties in the community — LIV spreads its amenities and operating costs across a large base of owners, which is exactly why you get a restaurant, multiple pools, and a golf course at prices that wouldn't make sense in a smaller development. And despite being this affordable, the community has a genuinely good culture. It's surprisingly quiet, and it tends to attract a different clientele than the beach-party crowd you'll find over on South Padre proper. If you want island living without the spring break energy, this is worth a serious look.

The financing reality — and why it's actually an opportunity

Here's the part that catches people off guard: most properties in Long Island Village aren't traditionally financeable. Between the fact that many of the homes are mobile homes and the flood, wind, and hurricane exposure that comes with any bay-side Texas property, conventional mortgage lenders generally won't touch these deals. Most transactions here are done in cash or through owner financing.

That sounds like a downside, and in one sense it is — it makes the down payment question bigger than it would be with a conventional loan. But flip it around, and it's actually an opportunity: this is one of the only paths to owning real waterfront property in South Texas for buyers who can't get traditional financing in the first place. And because financing is limited, there's real liquidity pressure on sellers at times — which means a savvy, cash-ready or owner-finance-ready buyer can find genuinely good deals that a conventionally-financed buyer would never see.

What things actually cost

Based on what we've seen transact recently:

• Lots: as low as $70,000, running up to $125,000, and up to $150,000 for water-facing views.
• Mobile homes: as low as $100,000 for something new or recently remodeled, up to the mid-$200,000s for a water-facing unit.
• Site-built homes on the water: there's a smaller pocket of these inside LIV, but they're genuinely rare and transact far less often than the lots and mobile homes — most buyers aren't entering the market at this tier simply because there's so little available.

Is LIV right for you?

If you want real bay-front island living, a genuine community with amenities that punch above their price point, and you're either buying with cash or open to owner financing, Long Island Village is one of the best-kept secrets in South Texas real estate. Reach out and I'll walk you through what's currently available and help you figure out whether a lot, a mobile home, or one of the rare site-built waterfront homes makes the most sense for you.

It also doubles as a genuinely strong rental play

One more thing worth knowing if you're weighing this as more than just a personal getaway: LIV properties make really good rentals, and the seasonal pattern works in your favor both ways. During the hot summer months, these rent well on Airbnb and short-term platforms. Then in the winter — peak season down here — you can shift to a long-term lease with a Winter Texan looking for exactly this kind of quiet, amenity-rich community for the season. That gives you two very different renter pools covering two very different times of year, which is a genuinely strong setup if you're trying to justify the purchase as an investment while still keeping it available for yourself when you want it.

We recently helped a client put together a deal like this — a lot, an RV, and a golf cart, all included in one purchase. That kind of turnkey package is exactly what makes LIV easy to step into, whether you're planning to use it yourself, rent it out, or both. Reach out and let's talk through what a deal like that could look like for you.