We know that sales of homes priced at $1 million plus are out of sight and up 53 percent in North Texas from a year ago. I think my message from Luxury Portfolio last month in Las Vegas was clear: luxury and multi-million dollar properties are not just alive but selling well.
Sales of modestly priced houses in the area have slowed down about 25% less than they were a year ago, according to Steve Brown, who also says overall sales by real estate agents are flat this year.
I find that statement really curious. If he’s talking about properties selling OUTSIDE the Loop, maybe. Inside the Loop, sales pace is way up, and we have exceeded the high point of property values BEFORE the recession. Home sales prices in East Dallas were up 51% in January 2014 over 2013, according to the MLS. Similarly, Oak Cliff prices shot up 53 percent from a year earlier, up 49% in northwest Dallas and 65 percent in southeast Dallas. Sales volume down at price points below $100K, maybe, but sales prices are up. An agent told me yesterday a first time home buyer put $500,000 cash down on her very first home.
We know that more than 100-plus homes priced at $1 million (or above) have sold since January 1, 2014. Another 857 homes in that price range are waiting in the wings for their buyers. Why are million dollar plus sales outpacing “normal” homes? People with money tend to recover faster than those without, and can move more nimbly:
“Million-dollar home sales are way up,” said Dr. James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M. “We are in a housing recovery, and people with money recover faster than people without money.”
Allie Beth agent to the luxury buyer Erin Mathews told Steve Brown that “many affluent home buyers sat on the fence during the recession, and they are now ready to make a deal.”
Perhaps people are being bitten by the “herd mentality” that this is the best time to upgrade a home. At the same time, the relocation buyers are descending upon Dallas from London, New Jersey, California, everywhere. That plus the tightest home inventory in more than 20 years makes it tough to be a buyer. Still, Mathews told Steve Brown, nobody is being crazy with prices.
There’s nothing crazy about an $8,995,000 priced property, especially if it is my dream house at 4610 Wildwood.
4610 Wildwood was built in 2006 by former Trammel Crow exec J. McDonald Williams. 
They took down this Tudor to claim the lot. Williams, who was once the chairman of Trammel Crow Company and founded the Foundation for Community Empowerment and the J. McDonald Williams Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, hired Bodron+Fruit Architecture, Mesa Landscape Design, and contractor Elite Homes by John and Stephen Hardy to build this masterpiece in 2009.
And oh construct they did. This breathtaking contemporary architecture was built in synchrony with the surrounding Bluffview environment. Boasting Cottonwood limestone, mahogany, and copper exteriors, rift cut white oak and Gascoigne marble floors, custom cabinetry, an expansive library, a marble-clad Rumford fireplace, and 14-foot ceilings, the interiors are stunning.
Well, 4610 is under contract. Originally listed with Claire Dewar last April, it was first put on the market for $9,750,000. Erin got the listing in February of this year, chopped that price like chopped liver, and there you go. Contract pending.
