Highland Park vs. University Park: What the Same School District Actually Buys You

Highland Park has the lowest municipal tax rate of any city in Dallas County, according to Dallas Morning News reporting on 2026 tax data pulled from the county's appraisal rolls. At $0.199296 per $100 of assessed value, it undercuts every other city in the county, including its neighbor to the north. Most buyers hear that and assume Highland Park must be the cheaper of the two Park Cities to own in. It isn't reliably true, and the reason has nothing to do with the rate itself.

Both towns sit inside the same school district. Highland Park ISD serves Highland Park and University Park alike, so a family comparing the two isn't actually comparing schools. They're comparing two separate city halls, two separate sets of assessed values, and two very different price bands that get you to the same classroom door. The rate is the smallest part of the story. What the appraisal district decides your specific house is worth is the part that actually shows up on the bill.

The Rate That Isn't the Whole Story

University Park's city council has adopted a municipal rate closer to $0.236226 per $100 in a recent fiscal year, nearly 19 percent higher than Highland Park's. On paper, that makes Highland Park the better tax deal. In practice, Highland Park's average taxable value runs high enough that the math flips. Dallas Morning News reporting on the county's 2026 tax data put Highland Park's average taxable value around $3.17 million, which turns that low rate into a town-level bill near $6,300 for a typical property, before county, hospital district, and school taxes are added on top.

That's before Highland Park ISD's own rate comes in. The same reporting listed HPISD's rate at about $0.835 per $100, the lowest school rate in the metro, applied against an average taxable value across the district of $2.39 million. That works out to roughly $20,000 a year just for schools. Add the county, the hospital district, and the community college district, and you start to see why a low headline rate doesn't translate into a low bill once the underlying home values run this far above the county norm.

University Park's own city government is candid about where the rest of the money goes. Its published tax information page states that the city itself accounts for only about 14 percent of a resident's total property tax bill, with Highland Park ISD collecting roughly 53 percent of the total. Whichever Park Cities address you choose, the majority of your annual tax bill is already decided by the school district you can't avoid and the appraisal district's opinion of your specific lot, not by which town's logo is on the police cars.

What the Same-Month Numbers Actually Show

Here's where the comparison gets genuinely tricky for anyone reading portal data and expecting a clean answer. In the three months ending May 2026, Redfin's tracking showed Highland Park's median sale price at $2.3 million, down 32.2 percent year over year, with homes averaging 16 days on market against 43 days the year before, on 27 closed sales in May. University Park, over that same window, showed a median of $2.5 million, up 4.5 percent year over year, averaging 23 days on market against 41 the year before, on 50 closed sales in May.

Move to a single calendar month and the picture shifts. Movoto's data for June 2026 alone put Highland Park's median sale price at $4,097,500, on 50 closed sales, up from 43 a year earlier, averaging 38 days on market against 54 the year before. University Park's June 2026 median came in at $2,995,000, on 82 closed sales, down from 107 a year earlier. Pull back to a 30-day window ending in late April 2026 and Orchard's data showed Highland Park's median at just $2,208,500, on only 4 closed sales, down from 10 the year before, with days on market stretching to 104 from 42.

None of these numbers are wrong. They're measuring a market where the total pool of monthly transactions across both towns rarely tops a few dozen homes. When one high-end estate closes or doesn't, the median for that month moves more than it would in a neighborhood selling two hundred homes a month. A single-month median in either town tells you less than it looks like it does. A trailing quarter, weighed against the prior year's same quarter, is a steadier read.

What Your Number Actually Buys

The medians describe the middle of the market. They don't describe the range, and the range is where the real decision happens. Entry into Highland Park ISD through University Park can start around $700,000 for a cottage near SMU, the kind of starter home that gets a family the district without the estate lot. Highland Park's median runs roughly double University Park's, and its highest end, along streets like Beverly Drive, reaches $25 million and up. Both towns deliver the same schools. The price of admission is not the same conversation at all.

A meaningful share of University Park's housing stock dates from the 1920s through the 1970s, which puts a real decision in front of buyers who land there: renovate or rebuild. Cosmetic-to-moderate updates on a 1950s or 1960s home typically run $100 to $250 per square foot. A full gut renovation runs $250 to $400 or more per square foot. A teardown and new build, excluding the cost of the land itself, runs $350 to $600 or more per square foot depending on finish level. That range matters more in University Park than in Highland Park, where the housing stock skews toward already-updated estate properties and the renovate-versus-rebuild math shows up less often.

The Streets Where Listings Don't Reach the MLS

Inside University Park sit a handful of enclaves where inventory turns over quietly. Volk Estates was laid out in the 1920s by Leonard Volk on 41 acres purchased from SMU, built from the start as a small, architect-driven neighborhood of large lots. St. Andrews Place sits across from the fairways of Dallas Country Club, with winding streets and lots between 70 and 110 feet wide. Windsor Place, bounded by Preston, Williams Parkway, Shannon, and University, mixes original 1920s and 1930s two-story homes with newer construction on the same blocks.

Turnover in these pockets is thin enough that a meaningful share of sales never make it to public listing at all. For buyers who've already ruled out schools as the deciding factor, this is often where the real search happens, through relationships and off-market conversations rather than a portal search. It's also where sellers who value privacy over broad exposure tend to end up, particularly at price points where a public listing draws more looky-loos than serious offers.

University Park's commercial core is getting its own quiet investment too. In May 2026, the city approved a Public Improvement District to fund long-term upkeep of Snider Plaza, the retail corridor at Hillcrest and Lovers Lane that has anchored the neighborhood since 1927. It's a small piece of municipal news, but it signals the kind of sustained public investment that tends to support values along a corridor over time.

Before You Write the Offer

One procedural change affects both towns equally. Texas Senate Bill 1968, effective January 2026, now requires a written Buyer Representation Agreement before an agent can tour a buyer through properties. At Park Cities price points, where a home's true value can hinge on a handful of comparable sales in a given month and negotiation leverage can swing by tens of thousands of dollars, the agreement you sign at the start of the search is no longer a formality. It's worth reading closely before your first showing, in either town.

A Few Questions Worth Settling Upfront

Do Highland Park and University Park actually share the same schools? Yes. Both towns are zoned entirely to Highland Park Independent School District. The distinction between the two is municipal, not educational.

Which town has the lower total tax bill? It depends on the specific home. Highland Park's city rate is the lowest in the county, but its average assessed values are high enough that total bills, once the school district and county are added in, often land higher than a comparable University Park property. Run the full rate stack against the actual assessed value of a specific address before assuming either town is the cheaper choice.

Where do off-market listings tend to surface in the Park Cities? Enclaves like Volk Estates, St. Andrews Place, and Windsor Place in University Park see a meaningful share of sales handled privately rather than through public listing, largely because turnover is thin and sellers often prefer a quieter process.

If you're weighing Highland Park against University Park and want the math run against a specific street rather than a countywide average, that's the conversation worth having before you tour anything. Jason Landry works both sides of the Park Cities regularly and can walk you through what a given assessed value actually means for your bill, along with the addresses that never make it to a public search. Start with an instant home valuation, or browse current Park Cities listings to see what today's price bands actually look like on the ground.