UPDATE 10:35 am: I heard from Thomas, who explains he was picked by Marketwatch as one of 21 representatives for 21 cities across the U.S. to write about their city’s real estate market. He is the Dallas representative and just got a crash course in SEO:
“My last article had about 6,400 views total and I started to think, what do people want to read about? Ultra-expensive, celebrity type homes of course! This article has 67,000 views in 18 hours.
That would be Dave Perry-Miller agent Thomas Randall, who wrote a piece for the online Dow Jones’ product MarketWatch:
Ever wanted to buy a home with 11 fireplaces, 12 bathrooms and two “staff wings”? The price tag, which started out at $135 million, is now $100 million. This property is on 25 acres in one of the most prestigious areas in Dallas, Preston Hollow. Preston Hollow is home to such billionaires as Kelcy Warren, Ross Perot, Mark Cuban and a handful of other notables.
The estate is on such a large piece of land that the entire subdivision is named after the owner, Thomas Hicks. Upon purchasing this home, you would become neighbors with Thomas Hicks’s longtime friend, George W. Bush. A sports tycoon, Hicks has been an owner of the soccer club Liverpool F.C., the Texas Rangers baseball team, the Dallas Stars hockey team and the Mesquite Championship Rodeo.
A $100 million single-family home is certainly a sign that the real estate market in Texas is at its highest point ever. The most expensive home ever sold (on record) was listed for sale at $30 million in 2009. Texas has a disclosure law, so the sales price is unknown. As of now, there are five listings in the city over $27 million.
Looks like Thomas is a Location Scout for Dow Jones, a very cool media system that brings in industry professionals — “stories offering a different perspective on the real estate market than staff journalists or freelance writers would offer, which provide readers with a “boots on the ground” approach to housing news in various cities. Any opinions in the articles are the writer’s alone.” Different perspective than staff journalists for sure — it’s free content — this is native advertising at its best.
I can tell Thomas that the most expensive home on record in Dallas, in Preston Hollow in fact, is the home of Kelcy Warren at 5323 Park Lane, which he bought in June of 2009 from Joyce and Larry LaCerte for about $29 million. DCAD has it appraised at $24, 545. Joyce and Larry have since moved to Highland Park.
Anyhow, I like this deal, and Thomas Randall is a pretty darn good blogger. What a great way to get free content, too, at Dow Jones! But I don’t know if I’d agree that the existence of Tom Hick’s listing, “Walnut Place”, listed at $100 million, is a sign that the real estate market in Dallas is at its highest ever. That is an exceptional home, for sure, but it would be priced for an arm and a leg in any market. And the price has actually come down from $135K. Still, cycles:
Typically the real estate market is on a seven-year cycle. We are nearing that seven-year end point since the recession, and the bubble is certainly going to have to either deflate or pop in the near future. Dallas is a resilient city, and the tax laws in Texas (no state-level corporate or individual income tax) keep the economy flourishing and promote company moves to Texas.
Half of the 16 U.S. metro areas whose local economies grew at a 6% pace or better last year were in Texas. Toyota, State Farm Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and others have office deals totaling just shy of 8 million square feet, bringing thousands of jobs to the Dallas area.
Thousands of jobs. We need inventory. Don’t think Dallas is done “peaking”. What do you think???
