Most Expensive Homes In North Texas

Here is the list of the most expensive home sales for 2011 in North Texas. Not surprisingly, the Park Cities (as Highland Park and University Park are collectively known) delivered 4 of the 10 most expensive sales, with the Preston Hollow area only accounting for two.

#10 - 1745 Turbeville Rd. (Hickory Creek)

List Price - $5.6M.

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

#9 - 4636 Chapel Hill (White Rock Lake)

List Price - $5.995M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

#8 - 10340 Gaywood Rd. (Preston Hollow)

List Price - $6.495M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

Only 26 days on the market!

#7 - 6900 Baltimore Dr. (Uber Swank Volk Estates in University Park)

List Price - $6.99M

Sold Price - $6.5M

Only last 14 days on the market!

#6 - 9338 Meadowbrook (Preston Hollow)

List Price - $6.795M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

#5 - 6815 Baltimore Dr. (Volk Estates Lot in University Park)

List Price - 6.99M

Sold Price - $6.5M

Only 27 days on the market!

#4 - 3816 Turtle Creek Dr. (Private street that overlooks Turtle Creek)

List Price - $7.9M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

#3 - 3711 Lexington Ave. (Highland Park)

List Price - $8.5M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

Only 27 days on the market!

#2 - 3851 Windsor Ln. (Two Adjacent Lots in University Park)

List Price - $9.6M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

#1 - 1850 Turbeville Rd. (Hickory Creek)

List Price - $15M

Sold Price - Not Disclosed

The Dirt In Highland Park Has Appreciated Over 500% Since 2006

4311 and 4321 Lakeside Dr., both listed at approximately 1.17 acres, have just been hoisted on the market for a mind-boggling $16,225,000 and $15,100,000, respectively. Something about this new listing just isn't adding up. Literally. Nearly everyone knows the piece(s) of land I'm talking about. The gorgeous treed corner lot where Lakeside Dr., Preston Rd., Oaklawn Ave. and Armstrong Ave. all meet. Or some of you many know it as the piece of land across the street from where Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, lives.

So, the short history of these lots is they were both comprised of 4310, 4311, 4320 and 4330 Lakeside Dr. and they were all four listed for sale together in the MLS back in 2004 under one address, 4311 Lakeside Dr., for $7,500,000. The entire property eventually sold after a whopping 673 days (almost 2 years) on the market for a meager $6,025,000. While the property's owner is listed in the tax rolls as the Town of Highland Park, I seem to recall chatter that a neighbor who lives on Armstrong purchased the property to make sure the property sold to a nice individual that would want to build a HUGE single family residence on the property, as opposed to a church or some other commercial development. But who knows if that's true or not. I certainly don't.

Anyway, a few days ago I saw a couple new lots listed for sale in Highland Park with the addresses 4311 and 4321 Lakeside Dr. And then I see the redonkulous list price! I quickly whipped out my trusty TI-82 calculator to discover that the appreciation rate from $6,025,000 in 2006 to over $31,000,000 in 2010 is a nonsensical 520% appreciation rate over 4 years.

Sure this piece of land is desirable, but $6M to over $30M in 4 years for the same exact piece of dirt? Am I missing something here?

Giving the middle finger to Uncle Sam?

I've discussed the glaring discrepancy between a property's true market value versus the Dallas County Tax appraisal before. Why I am bringing it up again? Because of this.

4800 Preston Rd. - House of John and Lyn Muse. Valued on DCAD for just over $30 million. (Land is worth $21,175,000)
Description: 8 year old house with 25,000 sf, with all sorts of cabanas, guest quarters and greenhouses sitting on 7.7 acres and backs to Exall Lake.

4101 Beverly Dr. - Home of Edwin Cox Trust. Valued on DCAD for almost $22 million. (Land is worth $21,832,500)
Description: 97 year old home with 20,000 sf, pool, tennis court, etc. all on 6.6 acres and backs to Exall Lake.

And then I click on 4100 Beverly Dr. and 4101 Mockingbird. Home of Dallas Country Club. Total value on DCAD is just under $10 million. Wait. What? Am I reading this right?
Description: One of the most prestigious country clubs in the country with roughly 10 buildings that total around 150,000 sf of air conditioned space sitting on 113 acres in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country.

In summary, according to DCAD, Ed Cox and John Muse's combined 14 acres of dirt is worth approximately $43 million. Dallas Country Club's 113 acres and 10 buildings is not even worth $10 mil. Do country clubs fall under the church and school categories when it comes to property taxes? Am I missing something here?

Bueller...Bueller....Anyone?

Want To Meet the True Top Producing Agents in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow? The Numbers Don't Lie

Over at Dallas Dirt Candy posted some production numbers for the Preston Hollow and Park Cities areas. To me her source's numbers were a little vague and didn't give the clear picture of who was doing what type of production. If you know me at all, you know I love me some numbers. I didn't look specifically at the companies but at the Top 50 producing agents. I find that just as interesting. So dig in, analyze, discuss. (Can you believe I came in above number 1? I needed my own line because I'm in a different league. This was so unexpected.)

Production in Park Cities and Preston Hollow only:

$100,000 Price Reduction on Beverly Drive

Remember this little incident I caused over at Overheard? Apparently the ruckus even made its way on to a real estate blog in San Diego. To summarize, a FSBO at Beverly Dr. and Preston Rd. in Highland Park was asking $2,250,000. After 2 months and no sale they listed with an agent and increased the asking price by $200K to cover the commissions. I called shenanigans saying buyers would see right through their ruse. It stirred up some serious emotions to say the least.

Today the MLS shows the property reduced $100,000 off their original $2,495,000 asking price and it has been on the market for roughly 2 months. So they are now at $2,395,000 which is still $145,000 more than what they were asking during their FSBO days. It didn't sell then after 60 days on the market and now they have been on the market for 2 more ,months at a higher price and have just reduced $100,000.

Some of you might be waiting for the "I told you so" but it's not coming. All sellers in this market can learn from this example. In both good and bad markets, Dallas will never be a real estate market where you can test the buyers and hope a hedge fund daddy will simply pay you what you're asking, just 'cuz. Most buyers in the Park Cities are smart and their Realtors should be even smarter.

Now we'll just have to wait and see how my $1.9 to $2 million dollar sales price prediction holds up.

You Be The Judge

I almost didn't post this because I don't want this agent to think I am picking on him. He's an incredibly successful agent and works with many professional athletes including Nolan Ryan and his family. So he knows what he's doing when it comes to selling high end real estate. But check out these pictures for his listing on Beverly Drive.

Front. Nice picture. No complaints here.

I'm pretty sure the kitchen is a little bigger than this. But from the picture you'll never know. Also looks dark.

Living room looks small because of the angle. Again, I'm sure it's not but pictures are all that people are looking at while online.

I'm not sure what this room is. Sitting room? Library? Whatever room it is it looks too dark.

Picture of a bed. Can't see the flooring and looks like a typical $150,000 home in Garland. This home is on Beverly Dr. people!

I'm really not sure what's going on with this angle. Is their headboard that ugly? I assume this is the master bedroom but you don't get the sense it's all that big in this picture. Do you?

Odd angle and again just doesn't do the space justice.

Seriously? You can't move a few things off the desk before snapping this shot? I have moved sofas, tables and beds in order to get the perfect picture. I don't think I'm being too picky here.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "postage stamp yard". The lot is small (70x145) so I guess this is all you're going to get anyway. Not sure I would post this pic seeing as how buyers love them some backyard space.

My point in posting this particular listing is if you only had these pictures to look at (excluding the front picture and didn't know it was on Beverly Dr.) would you really think the asking price of this home is $3.4 million dollars and the home has over 7,100 sf? My clients call me hours after listing their home already telling me they want me to retake pictures of their guest rooms or living rooms because they don't care for the picture I took. And I'm completely fine with that because my goal is to make sure they are happy and content. But to be honest it doesn't happen often because I'm an awesome picture taker-er. Yet this seller is content with these pictures? Am I being too picky here? Compare with this picture and let me know which one you would prefer.

My Bad. Revised Park Cities Sales Stats

Turns out I didn't look very closely at the closing dates of the properties. Big thanks to Britt Fair for noticing there was not 1 closing in February on the CMA even though you can see I included the month of February in the search criteria up top. I just got off the phone with our MLS folks and apparently the term we use when you search for homes in Highland Park ISD was changed (there are 3 Highland Park ISD search terms in our MLS for some reason) which is why no closings showed up for the month of February. Completely my fault. Isn't technology fun? If I worked for a news station I would totally be fired. So here are the real 2008 sales stats. Lakewood and Preston Hollow stats were not affected.

Number of homes sold: 44 (60)
Avg. price/sf: $365.71 ($363.07)
Avg. sales price: $1,487,885 ($1,594,985)
Avg. days on market: 117 (75)

*2007 statistics for same time period in ( )

So that is only a 27% drop in number of homes sold and a 7% drop in price.

Park Cities Sales Stats Year-to-Date

Number of homes sold: 17 (60)
Avg. price/sf: $361.34 ($363.07)
Avg. sales price: $1,474,997 ($1,594,985)
Avg. days on market: 108 (75)

*2007 statistics for same time period in ( )

So far in 2008 only 17 homes have sold within HPISD. You know I'm not one for doom and gloom news but I'm shaking just getting out my calculator because it ain't gonna be pretty. That is a 72% decline in number of homes sold compared to the same time period one year ago. Please don't tell Steve Brown about this. Don't believe me? See 2007 here and 2008 here. And we even had one more day in February this year. Ouch! What gives? DOW got everyone down? Pun intended.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I realize that there will probably be a few closings that were not input into the MLS last Friday so I'm sure there will be a few that hit the MLS Monday and Tuesday. But it still won't be close to last year's numbers.

$2 Million Dollar Price Reduction

This home was listed on 9/26/06. Yes, as in 2006. It's been on the market for 520 days and recently reduced again. This is how the pricing history breaks down.

9/06: $11,995,000

9/07: $10,999,000

2/08: $9,999,000

I've seen this house and it's fabulous. You'd be hard pressed to find a better location in all of Texas. But did they really miss the mark by $2,000,000? Is this a prime example of how overpricing will kill a listing and cause it to end up selling below it's true market value?

I realize many of you are saying, "Jeff. Don't be silly. Pricing rules are completely different when it comes to ultra high end real estate." And I would say you are somewhat correct. But if this home had come on the market at $10.5 million in the beginning, would it have stayed on the market for 520 days? As it is now, they probably stand to end up taking far less than what they could have had they been priced competitvely in the beginning. Pricing strategies work for high and low end real estate regardless of what market Steve Brown thinks we're in.

FSBO Takes Me to Task on Pricing Strategy

Seems I caused quite a stir over at Park Cities People blog Overheard. I may have been a little cheeky with my thoughts on the pricing strategy of a home on Beverly Dr. in Highland Park but I certainly didn't expect this type of reaction from one of the homeowners and their friends. You see, they had their home for sale by owner for 2 months at $2.25 million and recently listed with a Realtor for $2.495 million to cover their closing costs and commissions. Am I stupid for thinking a buyer will see right through this?

Check out the post. But more specifically, pay attention to the comments section. Did I really need to respond to their ranting? No. But you should know by now I can't resist a good argument.

$12 Million Spec Home in Highland Park Up For Grabs

4223 Bordeaux Ave. just hit the market for a cool $11.995 million. This is another high priced home built by Andrew Merrick and designed by Robbie Fusch. This home comes complete with a basement, 1,800 bottle walk in wine cellar and 6 car garage all spread out over roughly 14,000 sf on one of the most beautiful streets in Highland Park

There are currently 8 homes on the market in North Texas over $10 million dollars with 5 of those being in the Park Cities.

Well. What are you waiting for? Make an offer! I bet they would take $11,900,000 for it.

See the virtual tour here. (If you're into that)

Another BIistering Asking Price in Highland Park

I guess I'm infatuated with ridiculously priced homes because I know I'll never be able to afford one. 4412 Lakeside Dr. just hit the market with a staggering $15 million price tag. What will that get you you're wondering? First, you'll have the privilege of living on one of my favorite streets in the country. You're facing Lakeside Park which is one of the most beautiful places you'll ever see on a Spring Day. You should see all the parents dragging their gussied up kids to this place come March and April not to mention the flurry wedding photos. Jerry Jones is within a stone's throw and Troy Aikman is a 5 minute jog away on Highland. But other than that the almost 10,000 square foot house was built in 1918 on a half acre and is was completely gutted from 2000 to 2003. The pictures look phenomenal and that wine room makes me wanna pop open a Pinot Noir just looking at it. And if $15 million is too steep for you why don't you scoot down the street and check out 4808 Lakeside Dr. Asking a paltry $10.9 million, this home has been lingering on the market almost 500 days after starting off at almost $12 million.

Top 25 Wealthiest Towns in America

Our very own Highland Park comes in at a very respectable 11th place on CNNMoney.com's 25 Top Earning Towns touting a median household income of $174,538 and a median home price of $1,603,608. "...well-heeled and well-educated Dallas suburb..." it says. I doubt anyone is going to argue with that. And I can't imagine the crazy cats at Frontburner are going to miss the opportunity to snarkily point out who came in at No. 25.

$165 million estate for sale...nuff said

Apparently "The Beverly House Compound," the fabled estate of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies in Beverly Hills, CA, has just officially been put on the market for $165 million. Take that Highland Park and your silly little $15 million lot! Here are some stats on this little cottage.

• Located on 6.5 acres
• 29 bedrooms
• 72,000 square feet
• 2 tennis courts

Ok, I just can't talk about this anymore without my head spinning. The listing broker is Westside Estate Agency Realtors but the listing is not yet on their website. But they did have this nice $75 million, 12,000 square foot "gated beach front compound" available in case you need to scale down. So the commission on $165 million sale would be...????