Highland Park

Welcome to Highland Park

Highland Park is an incorporated town, not a Dallas neighborhood, sitting about four miles north of downtown between the Dallas North Tollway and North Central Expressway (US-75). It covers roughly 2.2 square miles and is bordered by Dallas on the south, east, and west, and by University Park to the north. Together the two make up the Park Cities. The housing is almost entirely single-family, on tree-lined lots along Turtle Creek and the surrounding grid, and the town is essentially built out, so inventory stays tight and prices run high. Movoto put the median list price around $4 million in mid-2026. The trade-off is plain: entry is expensive, and there is very little condo, loft, or rental stock for buyers who want in at a lower number.

Most of Highland Park is served by Highland Park ISD, its own district, not Dallas ISD:

• Elementary: Five campuses across the district (John S. Armstrong, John S. Bradfield, Robert S. Hyer, University Park, and Michael M. Boone). Armstrong and Bradfield are the two located in Highland Park proper; assignment is by address.
• Intermediate / Middle: Arch H. McCulloch Intermediate (grades 5–6) and Highland Park Middle School (grades 7–8) share one building.
• High: Highland Park High School (grades 9–12) is the district's only high school.

For a town this small, green space was baked in from the start — the original plan set aside about a fifth of the land for parks. The showpiece is Lakeside Park along Turtle Creek, roughly 14 acres of landscaped grounds with walking paths, duck feeding, and the well-known Teddy Bear statues kids have climbed on for generations. Prather Park runs along Hackberry Creek with paths and a tennis court, and Flippen Park has a gazebo over a fountain and reflecting pool. Smaller pocket parks (Abbott, Connor, Davis, Fairfax, Douglas) fill in the rest.

Highland Park is residential by design, so it runs light on big festivals. The marquee event is the annual Highland Park Village Christmas Lights Celebration and Shopping Stroll, held each December, when the center switches on more than 1.5 million lights and the Highland Park High School Orchestra plays the sidewalks. Beyond that, the calendar is neighborhood-scale: park gatherings, school traditions, and Friday-night Scots football in the fall.

The anchor is Highland Park Village, at Mockingbird Lane and Preston Road. Opened in 1931 as the first self-contained shopping center in the country and named a National Historic Landmark in 2000, it pairs a roster of luxury retailers with dining like Bistro 31 under Mediterranean-style architecture. It was built to function as the town's gathering place, and it still does. For everyday errands and a wider mix of restaurants, most residents drift a few minutes over to Preston Center or Knox Street.

John S. Armstrong bought the land in 1906 and named it Highland Park for the high ground overlooking downtown Dallas. In 1907 he brought in Wilbur David Cook, the landscape designer behind Beverly Hills, and city planner George Kessler to lay out the town, setting aside about 20 percent of the land for parks. After Dallas declined to annex it, residents voted to incorporate on November 29, 1913. Armstrong's sons-in-law, Hugh Prather and Edgar Flippen, carried the development forward, and in 1931 the Flippen-Prather firm opened Highland Park Village. The town filled in through the 20th century and is fully built out today, which is why so much of the market now runs on teardowns and rebuilds rather than raw land.

Highland Park is for buyers who want a top-rated school district, walkable parks, and an address that holds its value inside one of the tightest markets in Texas. Two things to know going in: inventory is thin and moves on relationships, so being ready before a home hits the open market matters, and a lot of what trades is a lot with an older house on it, priced for the rebuild. Confirm the exact school zone by address, since a sliver on the west side sits in Dallas ISD rather than Highland Park ISD.

• Town of Highland Park (official) — services, parks, and town government
• Highland Park ISD — schools, calendars, and the address-based zone locator
• Highland Park Village — shopping, dining, and event calendar