High-end happenings

Luxury real estate firm moves into Texas with stars of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing

The Million Dollar Listing star is headed to Texas.

Bravo TV

Three reality TV stars are coming to Texas as part of Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s expansion in the Lone Star State.

Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which already handles deals for high-end homes and condos in Houston, said April 15 that it has opened offices in Austin and Dallas. Douglas Elliman says Fredrik Eklund, John Gomes, and Julia Spillman of Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Listing — which airs New York City and Los Angeles editions — will work from the firm’s Houston, Austin, and Dallas offices. The trio most recently were based at the firm’s New York City location.

No word on where in Texas the Million Dollar Listing stars are setting down roots.

“I am proud to be entering Texas with the support of Douglas Elliman,” Eklund, co-founder of The Eklund | Gomes Team, says in a company news release. “Texas is the most exciting market in the country right now, with buyers from California, New York, and Florida relocating here. We are looking forward to making real estate history with our new colleagues.”

Aside from Texas and New York, The Eklund | Gomes Team maintains a presence in California, Florida, and New Jersey.

New York City-based Douglas Elliman’s new offices in Austin and Dallas join the Houston office, which opened in 2019.

“Austin’s luxury market is booming,” Jacob Sudhoff, CEO of Douglas Elliman’s Houston-based Texas division, says in the news release. “As the premier luxury brokerage and No. 1 seller of new development in the country, entering into the Austin market was a natural fit.”

Matthew Ditlow, formerly of DEN Property Group, leads the firm’s Austin office, at 500 W. Second St. The office is hiring agents in Austin, where it already has more than $1.3 billion in new condo projects in the pipeline.

Douglas Elliman also is adding agents in Dallas. There, the firm has about $1.1 billion in new condo projects in the pipeline.

“Dallas is the largest luxury real estate market in the state of Texas,” Sudhoff says. “As the premier luxury brokerage that sells the most expensive homes in the U.S., we have an amazing opportunity not to just raise the bar, but also do something different. Our technology advances, combined with our national footprint and international reach, [are] going to bring [an] unprecedented platform to Dallas like no other firm.”

Michael Reddell heads the firm’s new Dallas office, at 4514 Travis St. in Highland Park.

Later this year, Douglas Elliman plans to open a retail store at the Shops at Arrive in Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood that it says will be similar to an Apple store’s Genius Bar and a Starbucks coffeehouse.

Established in 1911, Douglas Elliman is the second largest independent residential real estate brokerage in the U.S. as measured by sales volume. Douglas Elliman, a subsidiary of Miami-based Vector Group Ltd., posted revenue of $774 million in 2020 on sales of $29.1 billion.

home-for-sale

Bang for Buck

Surprising suburb unlocks biggest apartments in Houston for $1,500

Photo by Matt Halls on Unsplash

Pasadena has the 6th roomiest apartments on a budget in Texas.

Budget-conscious renters searching for the roomiest apartments in the region should look no further than Pasadena. According to a new study, the east Houston suburb has the biggest apartments on a budget in the metro.

In 2026, Pasadena residents can rent a 1,125-square-foot apartment for $1,500 per month. That's enough space for a two- or three-bedroom unit, and it's four square feet bigger than what renters could get with the same budget last year.

RentCafe's annual report analyzes the places where renters can find the largest apartment sizes across 200 of the most populous U.S. cities for a monthly budget of $1,500. The price per square foot was calculated using the average apartment rent and size per city based on "multifamily properties" containing 50 or more units.

Pasadena offers the 6th most spacious apartments in Texas for $1,500, and Houston ranks 11th statewide.

Renters in Houston proper will net a 976-square-foot apartment for the same price in 2026, a size that has shrunk by more than 20 square feet since 2023.

Apartment sizes across Texas
For the second year in a row, the Rio Grande Valley is the region that has the most spacious apartments for a $1,500 monthly budget, RentCafe found.

McAllen leads the nation with the biggest apartment size – at 1,378 square feet – which is large enough for a three- or four-bedroom unit.

"With rents averaging just $993 and the typical apartment measuring 912 square feet, McAllen renters get a lot more space for their money than most Americans do within that monthly budget," the report said. "Still, that figure is down slightly from last year’s 1,393 square feet — a sign that even the most affordable markets are starting to tighten."

Brownsville, another city on the border located an hour east of McAllen, ranks fourth statewide with apartments spanning 1,213 square feet for the same budget.

These are the top 10 Texas cities that offer the biggest apartments for $1,500 in 2026:

No. 1 – McAllen (1,378 square feet)
No. 2 – Amarillo (1,237 square feet)
No. 3 – Lubbock (1,217 square feet)
No. 4 – Brownsville (1,213 square feet)
No. 5 – El Paso (1,128 square feet)
No. 6 – Pasadena (1,125 square feet)
No. 7 – Corpus Christi (1,115 square feet)
No. 8 – Killeen (1,058 square feet)
No. 9 – San Antonio (1,023 square feet)
No. 10 – Mesquite (988 square feet)

real estate apartments housing rentcafe study houston pasadena