Last week we learned that Dallas home prices were up 4.6 percent over 2011 — this from the conservative Standard and Poors/Case-Shiller Index, which doesn’t even count new construction. Take a stroll through the Park Cities, and you can see for yourself that high-end builders are busier than ever in The Bubble.

In 2012, Dallas real estate did very, very well, with higher prices, a double-digit increase in sales and the lowest basket of inventory in more than a decade. Recently, I’ve even heard of multiple offers. Foreclosures are down substantially in North Texas, and builders are bellyaching about a lack of available lots to continue the frenzy.

Fire sale at the French chateau
From the condo market that finally “got real” to Champ d’Or, that overbuilt, 40,000-square-foot monstrosity in Hickory Creek, Realtors have been hopping since last January. After almost 10 years of marketing the place with more agents than Wilt Chamberlain had sex partners, Champ sold at auction to the Tabani family last spring, with a reserve price of $10.3 million.

At one time the place had been listed for $72 million, which brought a fancy new auction house to town, courtesy of the Sotheby’s affiliate Briggs-Freeman: Concierge Auctions. Concierge is quickly becoming the auction house of the rich and famous since it sold Cher’s 8.7 million Hawaiian home.

The actual winning bid was top secret, but word on the street was that Champ sold for about $8.7 million. The last I heard, it was being converted into some sort of venue or super high-end event facility.

The home was so overloaded that any price point below $10 million was basically highway robbery. The new owners got a master closet built to resemble the Chanel boutique in Paris, 18-karat gold doorknobs, a ballroom, 15-car underground garage, a steam room, a bowling alley, racquetball courts, two pools, a guest house and an opera theater basically for free.

Shortly before Champ left Alan and Shirley Goldfield’s fat real estate portfolio, developer extraordinaire Mehrdad Moayedi’s Centurion American Development Group bought up about 137 acres around Champ to build mini-Champ d’Ors.

Condo craze
In June, Moayedi threw open the Dorothy-Draper designed penthouse at the Luxe Stoneleigh Hotel to show off renderings for the Residences at the Stoneleigh, which he bought out of bankruptcy back in 2010. Construction should be complete early this year, and Shariff-Munir and Moayedi’s Crescent Builders are doing the finish-out.

That makes two new condo developments hitting the market in 2013: The Stoneleigh and the bright and shiny Museum Tower, embroiled in a little dust-up with its Nasher neighbor that got us front page ink in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

And how can I forget the most expensive penthouse in Dallas? Tim Headington put one of his movie star nests on the market — the 8,400-square-foot penthouse on the 21st floor at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton — for $14 million. My favorite feature: three wine refrigerators.

Celebrity dirt
In July, we learned why Dr. Richard Malouf over on Strait Lane needed three-phase power, because he’s building a waterpark behind one of his two estate homes. Excuse me if I’m being brief: Dr. Malouf is trying to chill my first amendment rights, so I’m moving on.

The Mary Kay home over on Douglas, reduced to a mere $2.9 million this year, was not where the late cosmetics queen lived her last few years, but it remains her namesake nonetheless. Troy Aikman sold part of his delicious Highland Drive estate in Highland Park, listed at $11.5 million, to Brian and Barbara Pratt, then took his $14 million casa off the market in the fall.

Mount Vernon finally did go on the market. The first asking price was $29.5 million; it was later lowered to $24.9 million. I think Mount Vernon is the most beautiful property in Dallas.

What else? Pro golfer Justin Leonard’s listed his $6 million University Park home earlier this year with a Dave Perry-Miller agent and — cha-ching! — it sold. American Idol Kelly Clarkson sold her $1.5 million Mansfield home this year, which doesn’t excite me nearly as much as Tom Leppert’s Preston Hollow mansion, listed for $5.6 million with former Dallas city manager Mary Poss late July.

Pat Summerall’s Southlake spread with a private lake (yawn) is still for sale, and a couple in Westlake spent millions to preserve a Dilbeck home they painstakingly moved brick by brick from one side of their lot to another. Speaking of Westlake, ex-Longhorn and NBA star LaMarcus Aldridge’s Southlake home — with waterfalls, spa, flagstone-lined patio and fire pit — was listed for $1.75 million earlier this year.

Just as the year was coming to a close, we got word that another mansion off Strait Lane hit the market and upped the cost of fancy-pants dirt in this town. Move over, Mount Vernon: 4939 Manson Court, a Mark Molthan Platinum Series estate on three acres, is on the market for just under (and I do mean just) $30 million.

No wonder Troy took his home off the market! If we thought 2012 was fun, 2013 is going to be a gas!