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?

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:

Phil Romano's $17.5 Million Dollar Home

One of my new favorite blog authors, Your Mama the Real Estalker, shamelessly rips apart Mr. Romano's Strait Lane pad in this post. Park Cities People and Dallas Dirt caught wind of it but I saw it first thanks to my source. Thankyouverymuch. Although I think Candy Evans over at Dallas Dirt is being a little too harsh on Your Mama in this post...and this one...and this one. It is commonly known that very personalized homes take longer to sell because they naturally appeal to a smaller pool of buyers. Yes. Even at this price range people watch the dollars. That's how they got to be rich in the first place. Think about how much it will cost to change 15,000 sf of crazy ceilings! I have seen $50,000 coffered and hand carved mahogany ceilings in dining rooms and I guarantee you no one is going to change that. But the decor and ceilings in the Romano house are pretty personalized and I can see someone spending a pretty penny changing them. Now is that a reason someone isn't going to buy this house if they have the cash? Probably not. But having $50K ceilings in the first place that are going to appeal to pretty much everyone in the first place couldn't hurt could it?

Oh, and thanks to Dallas Dirt for the breaking news about the reason the Romano's are selling. Big 'D', indeed.

It's All About Perspective

I was just reading this post on Dallas Dirt where an ignorant real estate jockey think they know more about the real estate market than the experts. So I bristled up and needed to blog on this New Years Eve Eve.

I will be running year end sales statistics after the New Year so we can put all of the stories to bed and you can make up your own mind how "bad" 2007 was for real estate in Dallas. But I couldn't wait to post this from a great blog straight out of Irvine, CA that dedicates itself to sharing stories about sellers who are losing their asses. Here is basically the whole post.

ZIP
92602 $662,000 -78.4%
92603 $760,000 -31.3%
92604 $630,000 -31.3%
92606 $867,500 -56.0%
92612 $397,500 -14.3%
92614 $650,000 -63.6%
92618 $742,000 23.5%
92620 $892,250 -66.7%

This is the first median I have seen reported under $400K (92612).

I'm not sure if these are year-over-year statistics and there are some other numbers he includes in the post that I didn't know what to make of them. But that's not the point. Here's what you should take away from this.

1. Dallas will never see 60% percentages in appreciation year-over-year which means we will never see these percentages in depreciation as well.

2. Dallas is doing very well heading for a 5% appreciation overall for 2007. Compare that with the -78% depreciation of zip code 92602 in Irvine, CA. We need to be grateful and put our great real estate market in perspective.

3. There is a zip code in CA with an average sales price under $400K. Investment opportunity? I think so.

Am I off base in my thinking? Am I being overly optomistic? I dont' think so. I think I am being realistic. Most important, what do you think?