A home in Highland Park has become the most expensive property listed in Texas this month, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. The house at 3636 Stratford Avenue is priced at $13.5 million, which equals about $2,000 per square foot.
The property includes four bedrooms and six bathrooms, as well as an accessory dwelling unit and a converted three-car garage on a third of an acre. The main house was built in 1989. In 2023, architect Jerry Coleman and Barringer Custom Homes remodeled the property, replacing the brick veneer of the second building with cedar shakes to give it a Cape Cod appearance.
The current owners, Timothy and Maria Beckett, bought the home in 2021. Dallas County records show they took out a $3 million mortgage for the purchase. When it last sold in March 2021, it was listed for $4.8 million; its current asking price is nearly three times higher.
Previously, Stephen Butt—president of shareholder relations for HEB grocery stores and great-grandson of its founder—and his wife Susan owned the property until 2003.
Listing agent Michelle Wood of Compass RE Texas said that although the garage has been converted into a basketball court with a striped floor, it can still be used for parking or even pickleball games.
Highland Park often ranks among Texas’ most expensive neighborhoods for real estate listings.
Real estate agents say that market conditions vary by location across Texas. “There are pockets where North Texas is a buyer’s market,” said Jim Fite, CEO of Century 21 Judge Fite. “But there are pockets where it’s still a strong seller’s market,” he said.
In West Texas markets such as El Paso, sellers have lost their advantage amid high inventory and incentives from builders aimed at attracting buyers. “It is a buyer’s market,” Husam Jallad said. “Certainly in the new builds, there are so many incentives. For God’s sake, builders, they are giving the home away, almost.”
In Austin—a region seeing increased luxury home inventory—lower-priced homes outside city limits continue to sell more quickly than those within central areas (https://therealdeal.com/texas/austin/2024/08/14/austin-strongly-in-a-buyers-market-especially-for-luxury-condos/).
Michelle Wood noted that Dallas’ luxury housing sector remains robust: “The luxury market has remained just as strong for me in 2025. I’ve sold a couple of properties over $20 million and a few in the $15 to $20 million,” she said. “The luxury market is less impacted by interest rates because most of these people, if they need to, can pay cash or borrow against liquid assets that they already have.”
Wood suggested that Austin’s changing luxury real estate climate stems from social shifts rather than financial ones: Many Californians who moved to Austin during the pandemic—especially those working in technology—are now leaving.
“Dallas has attracted a lot of Californians and New Yorkers but not as many from the tech industry,” Wood added. “It’s just a different type of buyer.”
Among this month’s ten priciest listings statewide, only one—the Dallas property at 4625 Walnut Hill Lane—has had its price reduced recently (from $10.5 million down to $9.3 million), according to HAR.
Other major metropolitan areas such as San Antonio have also reported slowdowns or challenges closing sales on residential properties (https://therealdeal.com/texas/san-antonio/2024/08/12/why-is-it-so-hard-to-close-a-home-sale-in-san-antonio/) while Los Angeles faces what some describe as an unusual buyer’s market (https://therealdeal.com/la/2024/07/31/la-resi-swings-to-weird-buyers-market/).
