A newly constructed home on a site that used to belong to a Dallas news station executive was the priciest new home listing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Listed at about $16.5 million, the Highland Park home on Stratford Avenue was constructed by Robert Elliott Custom Homes and its listing is being managed by Ty Vaughn with Robert Elliott and Associates.
“On Stratford, the houses are set back further than most streets, so you have a really an estately feel, from the curb appeal perspective,” Vaughn said.
The estate-like home is at 3648 Stratford Ave., near John S. Armstrong Elementary School. The Highland Park house was the most expensive listing in the D-FW area and is on a site formerly owned by the president of the area’s NBC station.
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The Houston Association of Realtors regularly publishes a list of the most expensive home listings in the state. In a list spanning late January and most of February, the Stratford Avenue home made the list with a listing price of $16,475,000.
Three Houston homes were more expensive, leaving the Highland Park home fourth in the monthly ranking. Six of the ten most expensive homes in the state were in the D-FW area.
The home on Stratford Avenue was listed for sale in late January after a break from the market following its first listing in June 2025, according to Zillow.
The home at 3648 Stratford Ave. is near John S. Armstrong Elementary School, the Dallas Country Club and Hackberry Creek Park.
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About two decades ago, the property was owned by Frank O’Neil, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. O’Neil served as the president and general manager of KXAS-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth’s NBC affiliate, according to his obituary.
He was also vice president of LIN Broadcasting, a media company that operated channel five before it became NBC 5 when the national broadcaster bought the station in 1998, according to the station’s website.
O’Neil had a 25-year career at the station and held a variety of sales and station management positions. He retired in 1991 and died in 2008 at age 64 with cancer, according to the obituary.
O’Neil owned the home on Stratford Avenue until 2004, according to the appraisal district. Robert Elliott Custom Homes acquired the property in 2023 from Bruce Barbash and Janis Rosenfeld-Barbash who owned the home after O’Neil.
The Stratford Avenue home’s backyard includes a pool, fire pit and a turfed lawn.
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When an older house has been lived in for a few years, the home could be in a condition that isn’t worth rehabilitating or its sellers might not want to mess with the housing market, instead opting to pass the site on to a developer, Vaughn said.
At the site, Robert Elliott Custom Homes built a nearly 11,000 square feet home with six bedrooms, five full bathrooms, two half baths and an elevator, according to Zillow.
The home’s backyard includes a pool, fire pit and a turfed lawn, Vaughn said. The home’s design is inspired by French Creole architecture, Vaughn said.
Robert Elliott Custom Homes built a nearly 11,000 square feet home with six bedrooms, five full bathrooms, two half baths and an elevator at 3648 Stratford Ave.
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The home is both secluded and connected.
It is close to both the Dallas Country Club and Hackberry Creek Park. Stratford Avenue is also three blocks long and doesn’t get much traffic, Vaughn said.
Being steps away from the creek and country club is what sets the home apart, Vaughn said.
“I joke with some of our folks that are members at [the Dallas Country Club] when I’m trying to sell them on property, ‘Hey, you can get to the member-only gate in about 35, 40 seconds from this front yard,’” Vaughn said. “It’s really that close.”