A new tiny-home community east of Fredericksburg is betting that Hill Country visitors would rather own a 400-square-foot cottage near the wineries than rent a hotel room downtown. The Village is a 242-lot master-planned development built exclusively for tiny homes at 11515 E. U.S. 290, and it's pitching itself as both a personal retreat and a short-term-rental investment in one of Texas's busiest small-town tourism markets.
Pricing for the homesites isn't entirely consistent depending on where you look. The developer's own website, thevillage-fredericksburg.com, advertises homesites starting at $159,900, while the San Antonio Express-News reports a starting price of $150,900. Combined lot-and-home packages start around $290,000, according to the Express-News, which also reported that homesite lots range from 4,500 to 10,200 square feet.
The tiny homes themselves average about 400 square feet and include one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen, per the Express-News. Two of the home models offer the option to add a loft, and buyers can customize porch size or add a furniture package. The developer's site describes five floor plans, from the compact Lark to the larger Tumbleweed, while the Express-News reported six tiny-home models are offered — a discrepancy in count that hasn't been resolved between the two sources.
Amenities Depend on Who's Counting
Amenity space is another area where the figures diverge. The Village's website advertises more than 15 acres of what it calls luxury amenity space, while the Express-News put the figure at five acres of resort-style amenities. Both accounts describe similar features: three pools, four pickleball courts, a putting green, walking trails, a 7,500-square-foot fitness center with locker rooms, and a 7,500-square-foot wine hall for community events, according to the Express-News.
Developer Chris De La Mora, who leads Houston-based WellStar Properties, told the Express-News that The Village offers an experience and convenience that goes beyond simply owning more square footage. He said the homes are intended to function as full-time residences, second homes or income-producing rentals, and that owners can use the properties without taking on the burden of substantial maintenance. De La Mora also said buyers are often surprised by how spacious the homes feel and by the customization options available, and he pushed back on the idea that Fredericksburg is purely a seasonal destination, telling the paper buyers can enjoy the area year-round.
Betting on the Short-Term Rental Boom
The pitch leans heavily on Fredericksburg's existing vacation-rental economy. The Express-News reported the town has more than 1,500 vacation rentals, guesthouses, cabins and bed-and-breakfasts, and The Village is located less than a mile from Signor Vineyards, Llano Estacado and Slate Theory Winery in a region with more than 50 wineries. De La Mora told the paper the short-term rental market is popular in the area, and The Village offers rental management through AvantStay for owners who want to list their homes.
Fredericksburg's rental market, however, is showing some strain even as revenue climbs. According to AirDNA, average short-term-rental revenue in Fredericksburg rose 7.0% from September 2025 to September 2026, even as occupancy fell 2.2%, average daily rate dropped 10.3% and active listings declined 17.3% over the same period. As of September 2026, the market had 2,611 active listings generating an average of $46,800 in trailing-12-month revenue, with a 42% occupancy rate, a $328 average daily rate and $136 in RevPAR. AirDNA scored the market 71 out of 100 as of October 20.
The Village's leasing arm is also marketing a lower-cost entry point. On its leasing page, the company says it is pre-leasing annual packages that bundle a home with a homesite, pitched as a way to use the property as a Hill Country getaway or sublease it as a short-term rental. The same page argues that leasing is a low-barrier way to step into the short-term-rental business without buying a home outright, framing it around what the company describes as a shift toward simplicity, connection and experiences rather than excess space and constant upkeep.
A Related Project Has Drawn Scrutiny Over Wastewater
De La Mora is also behind a second project, The Village at Grape Creek, under construction near Stonewall, east of Fredericksburg, according to KXAN. That outlet reported the Grape Creek development plans to discharge treated wastewater into a ditch that eventually connects to the Pedernales River, a plan that has worried nearby residents. KXAN reported that roads and utility infrastructure were already being installed at that site while permit approval remained pending, with De La Mora telling the station, “We've started the construction so that we can get moving with this project.”
Fredericksburg already has competitors in the tiny-home lodging space. The Resort at Fredericksburg operates 30 tiny-house cottages on 147 acres about a mile from downtown, according to the resort's own site, which also touts a putting green and a 10,000-square-foot tasting room. The Express-News reported that Firefly Hill Country Resort features 60 tiny homes and 234 RV spaces for ownership and vacation rentals, and that another tiny-home cottage operation sits on 140 acres along the Pedernales River. The Express-News described The Village as poised to become one of the first established tiny-home communities of its kind in the area.
City Rules Govern Any Rental Ambitions
Anyone buying into The Village with rental income in mind will still need to clear the city's short-term-rental requirements. The City of Fredericksburg maintains a dedicated webpage covering permitting and inspections for short-term-rental properties, and the city states that inspections are now required annually. The city also offers a searchable database so residents and visitors can locate short-term rentals already operating in town.
The tiny-home concept isn't entirely new to the Hill Country's history, either. The Express-News noted that so-called Sunday Homes were small, 1.5-story dwellings built by German-American farmers and ranchers in the mid-to-late 1800s, serving as temporary homesteads for rural families visiting town for church, shopping, socializing and business. Those homes typically featured one downstairs room and a sleeping loft — a layout not unlike the loft options now being marketed in some of The Village's modern tiny-home models.
The broader tiny-home movement has gained traction statewide as an affordable alternative to large mortgages and a way for buyers to enter the housing market, the Express-News reported, pointing to Lennar Corp.'s tiny-home construction in the Elm Trails and Southton Meadows subdivisions in Bexar County as another example. For Fredericksburg, The Village represents a test of whether that affordability pitch can hold up alongside a softening short-term-rental market and unresolved questions about the project's own advertised numbers.
