Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 biggest real estate stories in Dallas for 2021 — including top neighborhoods; market trends; fast-growing suburbs; and homes with ties to beloved sports stars.
1. Tom Landry home for sale near Dallas' Preston Hollow is an oasis of nature. A former home of legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry and his wife, Alicia, located near the moneyed intersection of Bluffview and Preston Hollow, went on the market in June for $2,999,000 (and later sold). The house was built in 1952 and is at the end of a small, heavily wooded, secluded cul de sac off Inwood Road. It has 5,408 square feet, and is one-and-a-half stories, with a lower level that looks out over an intensely verdant backdrop that features a creek with a footbridge, wildlife, and loads of privacy.
2. Surprising Dallas suburb named top U.S. city for homebuyers under 35, says study. For some young professionals of Dallas, buying a home in a quiet neighborhood in the 'burbs is proving to be more appealing than a ritzy high-rise within city limits. A study released January 14 by personal finance website SmartAsset ranked the top 50 U.S. cities where homebuyers under age 35 are most commonplace. Just one DFW city made it into the top 10 (drumroll, please): Mesquite.
3. Fast-growing Dallas neighbor takes title as No. 1 U.S. housing market, report says. At least by one measure, the Dallas-area housing market was 100-degrees-in-the-summer hot. A study released August 24 by personal finance website WalletHub ranked four North Texas cities among the 10 most attractive real estate markets in the U.S. Frisco grabbed the No. 1 spot, with McKinney at No. 4, Denton at No. 5, and Allen at No. 6.
4. Massive new development will add 11,000 homes in well-to-do Dallas suburb. Celina is going to be under construction for a while. In August, it was announced that work would be starting on a 3,200-acre development that will supply more than 11,000 single-family homes and apartments to the fast-growing, affluent Dallas suburb. Farmers Branch-based Centurion American Development Group says the Legacy Hills project is being built near Legacy Drive and Celina Parkway.
5. One of Dallas' best suburbs will be home to the newest surfy lagoon. A new residential project is in the works and it's coming with what has become the new must-have: a lagoon. Called Bellagio Lagoon, it's a development that Megatel Homes LLC announced in September that it plans to build in Forney. The project is budgeted at more than $800 million and will feature a manmade lagoon with white sand beaches.
6. Dallas Cowboys' Emmitt Smith sells his $2.2M mansion with special perk. In September, Cowboys great Emmitt Smith listed his 10,806-square-foot home in far north Dallas for $2.2 million, a price tag that paid tribute to his No. 22 jersey number. And the buyer of the home would get the chance to sit down to dinner with Smith, he said. By early December, the home had sold, and as promised, the owner got dinner with Smith.
7. House for sale in northeast Dallas is a pristine '50s time capsule. Finding older homes for sale in Dallas that have not been renovated or flipped is becoming harder and harder to do — especially one that is in such pristine condition as this gorgeous '50s home on 11076 Erhard Dr., which came on the market in February in the Saint Andrews Addition neighborhood of northeast Dallas. Built in 1955, it was a virtual time capsule, thanks to its immaculate condition.
8. 2 Dallas-Fort Worth lakes flow onto list of Texas spots with most million-dollar listings. In Dallas-Fort Worth, two lakes are among the seven places in Texas with the most lake homes priced at $1 million or more. That was according to a June report from Alabama-based Lake Homes Realty. The report shows 16,716-acre Possum Kingdom Lake ranked fifth for the number of million-dollar-plus listings for lake homes (33) on May 15. In sixth place was 7,280-acre Grapevine Lake (24 listings).
9. 2 family-friendly Dallas suburbs unlock top spots as best cities to live in U.S. Two bustling Dallas suburbs earned top-15 spots on a list of the Best Cities to Live in America. They are Plano, at No. 7, and Richardson, at No. 12. Niche, an online platform that helps people choose schools and places to live, revealed its 2021 Best Cities to Live in America rankings on March 15. Among the ranking factors considered are affordability, housing market, neighborhood diversity, public schools, and walkability.
10. This affluent Dallas suburb nails down more home-building permits than Frisco. For years, Frisco has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the state and the country. Naturally, a building boom has accompanied that growth. Now, though, another Dallas suburb is outpacing Frisco in home construction. Through May 31 this year, Celina issued 1,352 residential building permits. By comparison, nearby Frisco issued 1,283 permits during the same five-month period.
The front of the former Landry house features a brick courtyard.
