Luxury residential listings in Houston this year slowed compared to 2023, with sales predominantly in the high-end neighborhoods of River Oaks and Memorial. River Oaks had eight of the 11 2024 top listings, while Memorial took the other three.
The highest listing amounts couldn’t measure up to the most-expensive few last year, when the top spot was almost twice as much as this year’s at $50 million listing for a Hunter Creek Village home.
While Houston’s most-expensive listings trended toward ultra-luxury price points exceeding $10 million in some months, the Bayou City closed out the year with only five such listings compared to last year’s seven. Compass top broker Laura Sweeney had three of this year’s top listings, as she did last year.
3 Briarwood Court | $27.5 million
A 15,800-square-foot home in River Oaks took the top spot, asking about $1,740 per square foot and spanning just over an acre.
It includes a plethora of special purpose rooms: a wine room, media room, billiards room, golf simulator room, and a home gym. There’s a wet bar, sunroom, home office and library, featuring an elevator and generator, with a pool and putting green in the backyard.
The four-bedroom home was built in 2014, designed by Houston architects Curtis & Windham, and is owned by NEK Investco Inc., which has a Las Vegas address, according to county records. Compass agent Robert Bland has the listing.
3630 Willowick Road | $24.8 million
This French château-style 15,000-square-foot manor, also in River Oaks, features antique Parisian details and adjoins a River Oaks golf course. It was built in 1995 and was renovated extensively in 2014. It was asking $1,650 per square foot when it sold in November.
The home was the city’s priciest sale this year, despite multiple price cuts after initially asking $29 million.
It features a curved limestone staircase, a deep-blue dining room with a night-sky mural on a ceiling edged with clouds, a gym with a wet bar and, in the owner’s bedroom, dual baths, a private patio and a two-level closet. It has a game room, office, garden room and safe room. A koi pond, two vine-covered pergolas and a pool enveloped in greenery stretch across the backyard.
Susan Krohn bought the house in 2005, records show, before she married Fayez Sarofim, heir to the Sarofim family fortune, the largest shareholder of Kinder Morgan and part-owner of the Houston Texans. Before the home sold this fall, the last-listed owner was Lori Krohn Sarofim, who is Susan Krohn’s daughter, and also the former wife of Fayez Sarofim’s son, Phillip Sarofim.
Rachel Solar of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Real Estate had the listing.
2920 Lazy Lane Boulevard | $20 million
The third-priciest listing closed in March for another home in River Oaks.
The five-bedroom, adobe-style home was designed by Robert A. M. Stern and built in 1989, asking about $1,150 per square foot when it sold in March.
The home spans 4.5 acres, with a detached guest home, tennis court, 40-foot living room and a pool enclosed in a 3,000-square-foot atrium.
Previously hitting the market in 2021 for $34.5 million, it was owned by Gerald Hines, founder and chair of Houston-based global real estate investment firm Hines, who died in 2020.
Douglas Elliman agent Mark Menendez had the listing.
2110 River Oaks Boulevard | $18.9 million
This River Oaks home was designed by Houston master architect John Staub in 1938, whom the Texas Tribune once called “the man who built River Oaks” for the 31 upscale homes he built in the neighborhood, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The five-bedroom main house of the estate spans 10,000 square feet on over 1.5 acres. It has a breakfast room, game room, library and wine room and is marketed with “museum-quality finishes” after Dallas architect Martha Bute remodeled it.
The estate includes a two-bedroom guest apartment above a four-car garage, plus a guest house, pool and hot tub. The price pencils out to about $2,000 per square foot.
Larry Brookshire’s estate is selling the home, records show. The former CEO of Houston-based Fisk Electric died in April last year. Compass agent Laura Sweeney has the listing.
3812 Willowick Road | $17.9 million
This 13,800-square-foot River Oaks mansion was built in 1983, with six bedrooms, asking for $1,300 per square foot — 124 percent more than it was three years ago.
Recently renovated, the home has a French neoclassical-inspired facade. It includes a home theater, multiple terraces, a courtyard, gardens and a swimming pool with outdoor kitchen. On the inside: a breakfast room, game room, guest suite, library and wine room.
The sellers are Laurie and Michael Waldrop, president of Houston machinery manufacturer Waldrop Company, records show. The two have owned it since March 2021, when the home was listed at about $8 million, or $580 per square foot.
The couple’s son, Drew Waldrop, broker-owner of Waldrop Realty, has the listing.
3931 Inverness Drive | $15 million
This 10,500-square-foot home sold in July, in River Oaks, and last asked for about $1,430 per square foot.
The home has more Southern style than most of Houston’s other top listings. It incorporates Louisiana architectural elements, with a large front porch and overhanging roof supported by white columns. The five-bedroom home features red brickwork and exposed wood beams, with an elevator, office, game room and wet bar, and a pool.
Harris County Appraisal District records have listed the owner as “Current Owner,” since 2008. Compass agent Katie Forney had the listing.
333 West Friar Tuck Lane | $14.8 million
This colonial, 17,200-square-foot estate asked about $860 per square foot. It sits on 4 acres in Memorial, and it sold in May.
Built in 1980, the five-bedroom estate comes with a tennis court, a pool and a private “lake,” plus an infrared beam and security camera system, computer-monitored cooling system, 200 kilowatt generator and storm shutters.
Property records list “Current Owner,” and Coldwell Banker Realty’s Norma Moore had the listing.
3244 Chevy Chase Drive | $10.5 million
This River Oaks home was built in 2006 by Dallas architect Elby Martin, in the “tradition of Addison Mizner,” the architect known for popularizing his interpretations of Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial styles.
The 13,600-square-foot, four-bedroom home comes with a game room, elevator and rotunda bar overlooking a pool. The residence sits on just under three-quarters of an acre.
The seller was the estate of oil and gas executive Paul Van Wagenen, who died last summer. The buyers were Cheniere Energy president and CEO Jack Fusco and wife, Kristen, Harris County property records show.
Ruthie Porterfield of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Real Estate had the listing.
11506 Habersham Piney | $9 million
This 11,500-square-foot home was built this year by Houston-based Metropolitan Custom Homes, hitting the market in October.
It’s located in the Piney Point Village neighborhood, part of the Memorial Villages and one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the state. The modern-style mansion features a grand staircase, two gamerooms, a guest suite, office, wine room and a pool.
The home spans just under 1 acre and is asking $780 per square foot.
John Beken of Beken Realty has the listing.
324 Buckingham Drive | $8.8 million
This home in Memorial, asking for about $610 per square foot, has dropped about 12 percent in price since it was first listed for $9.95 million in June 2023.
The five-bedroom estate, spanning 14,400 square feet on over two acres, has the works: it comes with a two-bedroom guest apartment above its four-car garage, two gamerooms, office, library, loft, wine room and, out back, a swimming pool with an elevated spa and adjacent pavilion with full cabana bath.
The sellers are Gary and Janet Mead. Compass’ Sweeney has the listing.
2411 River Oaks Boulevard | $8.5 million
This 8,400-square-foot River Oaks mansion, which has taken a 5 percent price cut since hitting the market in September, was the estate of the 39th governor of Texas, John Connally Jr., who held the office in the mid to late ’60s before serving as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard Nixon in the early ’70s.
Set on half an acre, the mid-century modern estate covers nearly 8,500 square feet and features five bedrooms. It was built in the late 1950s by Houston architect Ernest Shult as his personal residence. It includes a home office and study, an upstairs game room that opens onto an outdoor terrace, a poolside gym and a climate-controlled wine vault.
The Connallys sold the estate in 1984, after which it underwent several alterations, including a two-story addition. Compass’ Sweeny has the listing.
Read more
Houston’s priciest home listings of 2023
Houston’s most-expensive home sales trend to ultra-luxury
Estate last listed at $25M is most-expensive sale this year
