What Does It Actually Cost to Live in University Park, Texas in 2026?

How much does it actually cost to live in University Park, Texas in 2026?

The average home price in University Park in July 2026 is roughly $3.29 million, at about $704 per square foot, with a median sale price near $2.995 million in June, according to Redfin's University Park housing market data. Over the three months ending in May, prices ran about 4.5% ahead of the same period last year, and homes were selling in roughly 23 days on average, down from 41 days a year earlier. That's the short answer. The longer answer is what that money actually buys, why it moves faster than almost anywhere else in Dallas, and how it compares to the neighborhood most people ask about in the same breath: Highland Park.

By Paul Blair | July 25, 2026

University Park sits directly north of Highland Park, sharing the Mockingbird Lane line and the Highland Park Independent School District, but it's its own incorporated city with its own government, its own police department, and a noticeably different feel on the ground.

University Park at a glance, 2026

Figures per Redfin's University Park housing market page and the City of University Park's official community profile. Individual sales vary by street, lot, and condition.

Home to Southern Methodist University and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, University Park packs more than 7,000 homes into roughly 3.5 square miles, which is part of why the market moves the way it does: less land to work with, and a buyer pool that rarely thins out, per the City of University Park's community profile. Financing at these price points typically lands in jumbo territory — see our jumbo loan guide for DFW buyers for how that underwriting works in practice.

Streets, architecture, and what's changed recently

University Park's residential fabric is denser and more uniformly built-out than Highland Park's, with narrower lots, a mix of 1920s-through-1940s original construction, and a steady stream of teardown-and-rebuild projects on streets close to SMU and the Preston Hollow line. Some of the city's older subdivisions date to the 1920s, developed in the years after SMU itself was founded, and the housing stock reflects that layered history: Tudor and colonial revival homes standing next to recent full rebuilds on the same block.

The retail core is Snider Plaza, at Hillcrest and Lovers Lane, which has anchored the neighborhood since it opened in 1927 and remains the closest thing University Park has to a walkable downtown, with shops and restaurants residents use daily rather than as a destination. In May 2026, the University Park City Council approved a Snider Plaza Public Improvement District to fund long-term upkeep of the corridor, including the employee parking program that keeps shop staff off residential streets, with revenue collection beginning in January 2027, per the City of University Park's Snider Plaza page. That's a small piece of civic housekeeping, but it signals the kind of hands-on municipal management that's part of what buyers are actually paying for when they choose an incorporated Park Cities address over unincorporated Dallas.

Highland Park High School, despite the name, is physically located in University Park, on Emerson Avenue, which surprises some out-of-town buyers who assume the two cities' institutions stay strictly on their own side of the line. That overlap is a good example of how tightly woven the two municipalities are day to day, even though they're separately governed.

Buyers here tend to fall into a few recurring groups: SMU-affiliated faculty and staff who want to walk or bike to campus, professionals trading a larger Preston Hollow or suburban lot for density and walkability, and families who specifically want University Park's version of the Park Cities over Highland Park's, often for lot size relative to price or for a particular elementary school zone. It's a smaller, more homogenous housing stock than Highland Park's mix of estate and infill, which makes comparable sales easier to pull but also means less variance in what a given budget buys from block to block.

University Park vs. Highland Park: what actually separates them

The two cities are often lumped together as "the Park Cities," and for zoning and schools that's fair — both are served by Highland Park ISD, and both are separately incorporated with their own police departments, distinct from Dallas. Where they diverge is lot size and architecture. Highland Park's streets, particularly around Beverly Drive and Armstrong Parkway, run to larger, more varied lots with estate-scale homes; University Park's residential blocks are denser and more uniform, with smaller lots that keep per-square-foot pricing competitive with, and in some pockets higher than, Highland Park itself. I wrote about what that costs buyers specifically in Highland Park here.

The practical decision for most buyers comes down to a trade: Highland Park for larger lots and more architectural range, University Park for proximity to SMU, Snider Plaza, and a slightly more walkable day-to-day. Neither city is categorically "better" — they're different answers to the same budget.

Considering a move to University Park? Schedule a private consultation and we'll walk through current inventory, price bands by street, and how it stacks up against Highland Park and Preston Hollow for your specific criteria.

Schools and property taxes: the practical layer

University Park is served entirely by Highland Park Independent School District, the same district that covers Highland Park, with elementary zoning split primarily between Hyer and University Park Elementary depending on the street, per the City of University Park's community profile. Because HPISD is a single district shared by both cities, school zoning isn't the differentiator between University Park and Highland Park that it can be elsewhere in Dallas — the differentiator is lot size, architecture, and proximity to SMU and Snider Plaza.

Property taxes run through the Dallas Central Appraisal District, which mails Notices of Appraised Value each spring with a protest deadline typically in mid-May. Given University Park's price points, assessed values move meaningfully year to year, and I've written a full walkthrough of the DCAD protest process here if you're new to a Texas appraisal cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the average home price in University Park in 2026? The average sale price is running around $3.29 million as of July 2026, with a median sale price near $2.995 million in June and a price per square foot between roughly $704 and $730, per Redfin's University Park housing market data.

Is University Park the same as Highland Park? No. They're often grouped together as "the Park Cities" and share Highland Park ISD, but University Park and Highland Park are separately incorporated cities, each with its own government and police department. See our Highland Park guide for how the two compare on lot size and price.

What school district serves University Park? Highland Park Independent School District serves all of University Park, with elementary zoning split primarily between Hyer and University Park Elementary depending on the street.

How fast is the University Park market moving right now? Homes were selling in roughly 23 days on average in the months leading into mid-2026, down from about 41 days the year before, per Redfin — a meaningfully faster pace than the broader Dallas market.

What's Snider Plaza, and does it matter for buyers? Snider Plaza is University Park's main retail corridor at Hillcrest and Lovers Lane, dating to 1927. In May 2026 the city approved a Public Improvement District to fund its long-term upkeep, per the City of University Park — a sign of the ongoing municipal investment that supports property values along the corridor.

Own a home in University Park and thinking about listing? Request a confidential valuation to see where your property lands against this year's price bands before you decide on timing.

I've walked buyers through the trade-off between University Park's density and Highland Park's larger lots more times than I can count, and it usually comes down to how much someone actually uses a yard versus how much they want to walk to Snider Plaza on a Saturday morning — University Park is a market I track street by street, the same way I do the rest of the Park Cities.

Paul Blair is the founder and broker of Grey Square, a virtual real estate brokerage representing buyers and sellers across Dallas and Los Angeles. With 22 years in the business and more than $200 million in closed transactions, Paul works the full range of the market, from luxury homes in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow to estates in the Hollywood Hills and across the Westside. Connect with Paul and the Grey Square team at greysq.com. TX TREC #9011505 · CA DRE #01792671.