While much of the Dallas housing market absorbs mortgage rates above 7 percent and rising price cuts, the top of the market is running on a different engine. Alex Perry of the Perry Wisdom Barrett Narosov team at Allie Beth Allman & Associates told CandysDirt.com that homes priced at $10 million and above remain “extremely strong,” with local buyers moving quickly rather than waiting for conditions to improve.
Perry said buyers who already live in Dallas and know the economy are choosing to buy their long-term homes now because they do not expect prices for trophy properties to decline. Corporate relocations, often assumed to drive the luxury segment, account for less than 20 percent of his team’s business; the bigger driver is confidence among local buyers willing to trade up, according to Perry.
Active listings illustrate the scale of the top end. The Crespi Estates property at 5547 Walnut Hill Lane is on the market at $37.5 million, and an estate at 1725 Placid Oaks Lane in Westlake is listed at just under $12 million, according to listings cited by CandysDirt.
The contrast below the luxury threshold is sharp. Perry described more signs, more price reductions and sellers taking homes off the market in other segments, and he noted that some sellers still expect the frenzied conditions of 2021 and 2022. “Rapid increases can also lead to declines,” he said, adding that buyers today feel no urgency because they no longer fear losing a home to a competing bid. Land, however, remains in strong demand because builders want to keep building, he said.
For Dallas’s real estate economy, the split matters. Luxury transactions feed a wide ecosystem of architects, custom builders, designers and estate staff, and North Texas has been producing a deeper pool of such buyers as finance, technology and corporate headquarters migration expands local wealth. Inventory at the very top stays thin, which supports pricing even as the broader market cools.
Perry expects the two-speed market to persist into 2027, with rate cuts, if they come, unlocking more activity in the middle of the market while the top tier continues operating on its own momentum.
Data from the broader market underlines the divide. Metro Dallas home sales have slowed from their post-pandemic pace, inventory has rebuilt from historic lows, and days-on-market has lengthened in most suburbs. Sellers who price to 2022 expectations are being forced to cut, and builders are buying down rates to keep spec homes moving. None of that pressure touches the estate segment, where a limited pool of properties on lots measured in acres trades among buyers paying cash or financing minimal portions of the purchase.
Agents said the psychology at the top is shaped by wealth creation within North Texas itself. Executives at relocated headquarters, founders exiting private companies and second-generation family wealth have broadened the buyer pool beyond the corporate relocation pipeline that once defined Dallas luxury. That local depth is why Perry describes relocations as less than a fifth of his team’s business, a striking reversal from a decade ago when transfers drove the high end.
For now, the message to sellers in the $10 million-plus tier is consistency: well-priced estates are still drawing multiple offers, while anything aspirationally listed sits. The rest of the market is negotiating.
