This year's hottest headlines
Quirky homes and celebrity pads get listed in this year's 10 hottest Dallas real estate stories
Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 most-read real estate stories in Dallas for 2022 — including big listings, market trends, and homes with ties to beloved sports and music stars.
1. 2 quirky shipping container houses come on the market in Dallas' Fair Park. One form of housing that has captured people's imagination as of late is the shipping container home, and in February, there were two on the market from a Dallas developer who has made it his specialty. Both properties were located just a few blocks south of Fair Park. One had a conventional facade; the other was a quirky rectangle standing three stories tall.
2. Thriving Dallas suburb boasts 7th hottest neighborhood for U.S. homebuyers. The population of Forney climbed 60 percent from 2010 to 2020, and the growth showed no sign of letting up in January. A new report from residential real estate platform Opendoor provided further evidence of the continued popularity of the Dallas suburb. Forney's 75126 ZIP code ranked seventh on Opendoor’s list of the country’s 10 most popular ZIP codes for homebuyers.
3. Shaquille O'Neal slam dunks into Dallas-Fort Worth with new million-dollar mansion in the 'burbs. In July, there was a new Big Man on Campus around North Texas — a really, really big man. NBA icon Shaquille O'Neal purchased a home in Carrollton ahead of the anticipated expansion of his Big Chicken restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth and across the state. And he was already being a good neighbor.
4. T. Boone Pickens’ beloved Texas Panhandle ranch chops asking price by $50 million. In hopes of attracting potential buyers, the owner of the late T. Boone Pickens’ enormous Texas Panhandle ranch slashed the asking price by $50 million more than four years after it went up for sale. The 64,672-acre Mesa Vista Ranch, located about 55 miles northeast of Amarillo, was on the market in February for $170 million. (It has since sold.)
5. Dallas real estate mogul lists his Beverly Drive home with big extra perk for $16 million. Dallas residential real estate honcho Rogers Healy has vast experience buying and selling homes. In January, he put his own Highland Park home, at 3815 Beverly Dr., on the market for $8 million — with an intriguing twist that doubled the asking price.
6. Former Arlington home of the late Pantera musician Vinnie Paul is drummed into rubble. The saga of the quirky Arlington home once owned by the late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul took an interesting turn in the spring. Earlier this year, the home had gone on the market for $750,000. Just a few days later, a buyer snapped up the home for an undisclosed amount. In the meantime, the home was razed. The demolition seemed to have happened in April.
7. West Dallas developer launches new venture building fancy prefab homes. Oaxaca Interests, the Dallas real estate company that developed Sylvan Thirty in West Oak Cliff, announced in September it was expanding into modular homes, with a manufacturing plant in Grand Prairie and a new product that was already for sale.
8. Exclusive peek inside Mediterranean landmark house for sale in East Dallas. An East Dallas-famous house near Casa Linda Plaza went up for sale. Located at 1425 N. Buckner Blvd., it's a landmark estate sitting on 4.18 acres in the heart of Casa Linda Estates that went on the market in April. It's a grand old home built in 1925 or 1928, depending on who you ask, that's become a point of obsession for many East Dallas residents.
9. Charming Texas Gulf Coast community named one of the most affordable beach towns in U.S. Here was some welcome news for Dallasites in search of a beach house that wouldn't break the bank: Rockport, a coastal community about a six-hour drive from Dallas, landed at No. 7 on Realtor.com’s list of most affordable beach towns in the country in the spring. The charming Gulf Coast town’s average home list price is $435,112.
10. Dallas architecture firm nabs top floor of cool MCM Meadows Building. A Dallas design firm snagged the top floor of an iconic building: SHM Architects, PLLC, announced in November it had leased a 12,218-square-foot space at the historic Meadows Building at Energy Square, located at 5646 Milton St., relocating from their offices at 4514 Travis St. in the Knox District.