The mansion market in LA a whole different ball game than in Dallas.
DALLAS — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
If recently traded Dallas Mavericks superstar Luca Dončić decides to buy a Los Angeles home with his move to the Lakers, he’ll be house hunting in a significantly different market.
While the Dončić trade stunned Mavericks fans and evensurprised Luka himself, the situation provides a window to view and compare the multimillion-dollar mansion markets in Dallas-Fort Worth versus LA. The high-profile move is not unlike relocations faced by high-level corporate executives and others who are transferred relatively suddenly or see their corporate headquarters move to another state where home prices, supply and other dynamics can be a whole different ball game. Pricing and sales comparisons can be used by high-earners and other wealthy individuals as well as the real estate agents who serve them.
Compared with Dallas, the Los Angeles housing market is significantly more expensive. But on the plus side, there are more upper-end homes to choose from in LA. In addition, the cost of living is generally lower in the Lone Star State, which has no state income tax, than in the Golden State.
Dončić bought a home in Dallas’ pricey Preston Hollow neighborhood in 2020 and he was under contract for a mansion reportedly priced around $15 million at the time he learned he’d been traded. The deal was set to close “in a few weeks,” his business manager, Lara Beth Seager, told the Dallas Morning News.
“He expected to spend his career in Dallas,” Seager told DMN. “He had been in the process of purchasing a home in the area for himself and his family.”
While Dallas-Fort Worth led the state of Texas for the sales of homes priced at more than $10 million last year, according to a Jan. 23 report by real estate brokerage Compass, DFW is a relative rookie in the big leagues of eight-figure homes. LA is an established veteran.
It’s not that Southern California home prices are out of Dončić’s league, but even with an elite NBA salary, he’ll need to plunk down a bigger chunk of his paycheck to reside in a similar abode.
For starters, consider this — the average home value in the city of Dallas, according to Zillow, is just $305,646. But in the spirit of keeping it real, NBA stars don’t typically live in average neighborhoods. The average home value in Highland Park, sometimes referred to as the “Beverly Hills of Dallas,” is slightly over $2.6 million. In University Park, the average home value is north of $2.2 million, per Zillow, and in Southlake, it’s over $1.2 million (but that’s a long drive to practice or games at the AAC).
In Preston Hollow, where Dončić now lives, prices vary widely. Zillow has a listing for a six-bedroom, 10-bath mansion at 5100 Park Lane for $23.5 million, but also a four-bedroom, three-bath home at 4217 Beaver Brook Place for just $1,229,000.
Turning to the city of Los Angeles, the average home value is $948,383, according to Zillow. In the type of LA-area neighborhoods where wealthy athletes live, however, average home values trend much higher.
Dončić will soon be sharing the court with current Lakers power forward LeBron James, who purchased a $23.5 million spec mansion in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood in late 2017, then scooped up a 13,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion for $36.8 million in 2020, according to Architectural Digest.
The average Beverly Hills home value is $3.4 million, according to Zillow, which is down 6.6% over the past year, so maybe Dončić can get a deal. He’ll have to pay millions more though if he really wants to keep up with the Jameses and live in the 90210.
Another takeaway is this: While the number of home sales priced at over $10 million in the DFW Metroplex jumped last year, it’s still a more affordable but much smaller market than LA. So while Dončić will likely shell out more money for a home in LA, he’ll also have many more choices. Similarly, real estate agents who sell at the ultra-luxury price points in Dallas have a much smaller market to tap into than their LA counterparts do.
According to the report by Compass, DFW had 13 trophy homes trade at more than $10 million last year. That was up 62% from 2023’s total of eight, and led the Lone Star State. Five homes in the Houston metro sold for more than $10 million last year, down from seven in 2023. Austin, which logged three at that level in 2023, dropped to zero in 2024.
The 13 transactions in DFW in 2024 totaled $178.7 million in sales volume.
In the Greater Los Angeles area, 190 homes traded at more than $10 million last year, according to Compass. That was down 17.75% from the 231 homes that sold at that level in 2023. The 190 homes homes sold in Greater LA totaled $3.33 billion in sales volume.
