Half the homes going up in Richardson's newest single-family development won't have a full driveway. Not because the builder cut a corner. Because the lots are too tight to fit one and still leave room for a livable floor plan. That single detail tells you more about where Richardson's housing market actually stands in 2026 than any median price headline will.
If you've been watching the numbers from outside, the story looks simple. Richardson's median home price hit $477,500 in July 2026, up $27,500 from the same month a year earlier, on 92 closed sales. That reads like a city on a clean upward run. It isn't. Richardson right now is two housing markets running side by side, built on almost no shared supply, and the median price is just the average of two very different products that don't compete for the same buyer.
The Median Says One Thing, the Zip Code Says Another
Zoom into Richardson's 75082 zip code, on the Collin County side of the city, and the citywide growth story gets harder to square. As of June 2026, the median home value there sat near $550,000, down roughly 1.7% year over year, with demand momentum tracking well below the state average. Same city, same year, opposite direction.
That's not a data error. It's what happens when a housing market splits into a small cluster of scarce new construction pulling prices up in one pocket, on the Dallas County side of town, while the much larger pool of existing resale homes elsewhere cools because there's nothing structurally changing their supply or demand. The citywide median blends both. Neither number, taken alone, tells you what a specific house in a specific part of Richardson is actually worth right now.
One Builder Has Quietly Built Richardson's Last Three New Neighborhoods
Here's the mechanism behind the scarcity, and it sits in a different zip code than the one above. Look at where Richardson's new single-family construction has actually come from over the past six years, all clustered in 75080 on the Dallas County side of the city, and one name keeps showing up: developer Ben Caldwell.
Around 2019, Caldwell partnered on Mimosa Place, an 18-home cul-de-sac community off Campbell Road, with homes priced between $700,000 and $1.4 million. Today, Caldwell's Greenwood Square is selling 31 new homesites built by D.R. Horton on West Arapaho Road, priced from $620,000 to just over $712,000. And in May 2026, Richardson's City Council approved his next project, Greenwood Park, on West Shore Drive, directly across the street from Greenwood Square, on the site of the shuttered Cottonwood Creek Healthcare Community nursing home. That one will bring 40 compact detached homes estimated at $800,000 to $1.1 million, arranged around a shared park because the lots are too small for the usual suburban layout of driveway, yard, and setback.
| Project | Homes | Price range | Status as of September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mimosa Place | 18 | $700,000–$1.4 million | Fully built out |
| Greenwood Square | 31 homesites | $620,000–$712,200 | Actively selling |
| Greenwood Park | 40 homes | $800,000–$1.1 million (estimated) | Approved by City Council; demolition of the former nursing home expected in fall 2026 |
Three projects, one developer, spanning six years, all within a few blocks of each other in the same 75080 corridor. That's not a coincidence. It's what a city with almost no vacant land looks like when demand for new construction doesn't go away. Caldwell put it plainly to Community Impact when Greenwood Park came up for a vote: "There aren't a lot of new construction opportunities for single-family residential in Richardson." When the supply of buildable lots is this thin, the few that come available get priced for what the land is worth, not what the surrounding resale market says a house should cost.
The Council Approved It, But Not Without Pushing Back
The Greenwood Park vote passed unanimously, but the meeting wasn't a rubber stamp. Council members used the moment to flag a gap the project doesn't fix. Member Jennifer Justice pointed out that about a third of the city qualifies for the senior tax exemption and needs housing options those residents can actually move into. Member Dan Barrios went further, noting the site was zoned for exactly that kind of use before Greenwood Park took its place: "We're eliminating that opportunity to build these million-dollar homes."
That tension matters for anyone comparing Richardson to Plano or McKinney on price alone. It means the city's own elected officials expect future infill to keep leaning toward the $800,000-and-up band, not toward anything that would pull the resale median down. If you're hoping Richardson's new construction pipeline eventually produces something priced closer to the citywide median, the council's own comments in May 2026 suggest that's not the direction things are headed.
Downtown Is Building a Different Kind of Supply Entirely
While Caldwell's projects add a handful of owner-occupied homes at the high end, Downtown Richardson's CORE District is adding hundreds of units built for renters, not buyers.
In April 2026, High Street Residential, the multifamily arm of Trammell Crow Company, broke ground with joint venture partner Tokyu Land Corporation on a 281-unit apartment community at 110 E. Polk Street, a block south of Main Street. The building will offer studios to two-bedroom units and connects directly to the 4.2-mile Central Trail, with delivery expected by the fourth quarter of 2027. It follows Belt+Main, the city's first mixed-use residential and retail development in Downtown Richardson, which together with the new Interurban Common public space has already reshaped how walkable the district feels, according to the city's economic development office.
This isn't competition for the buyer looking at Greenwood Square or Greenwood Park. It's a separate supply stream serving renters drawn to a walkable downtown, and it's a meaningful reason downtown Richardson's resale values aren't riding the same wave as the infill neighborhoods to the north. New households arriving near Main Street are largely renting into new buildings, not bidding on existing single-family homes nearby. That keeps a lid on appreciation for resale stock in the urban core even as new-construction premiums climb in the 75080 infill corridor.
What This Means If You're Comparing Richardson to Plano or McKinney
Reduce Richardson to a single median price and you'll misjudge what your budget actually gets you, in either direction.
If new construction is the goal, plan on a floor near $620,000 for the smallest homesites at Greenwood Square, and expect the next available new-build lot, whenever it surfaces, to land closer to $800,000 given how the Greenwood Park pricing is shaping up. There is no meaningful new-construction inventory near the citywide median in Richardson right now, and the pattern of the last six years suggests that's not changing soon.
If resale is the goal, especially anywhere near the CORE District, the softer zip-level numbers point to more room to negotiate than the July median suggests. A buyer willing to look past new construction entirely may find more leverage in Richardson right now than the headline price growth implies.
If you're weighing Richardson against a rental investment, the CORE District's own pipeline is worth pricing into your return assumptions. Hundreds of new units are entering the rental pool in the next 18 months, and that supply will shape what you can charge before you shape it yourself.
None of this shows up in a single median price. It shows up when you know which developer is building which blocks, which zip code is cooling while the city average climbs, and which part of downtown is about to add 281 more doors.
FAQ
Is Richardson still a seller's market in 2026? Citywide, yes. The July 2026 median of $477,500 was up from a year earlier. But that strength isn't evenly distributed. The 75082 zip code showed a softer year-over-year trend as of June 2026, which means the answer depends heavily on which part of the city and which type of home you're looking at.
Where can I actually find new construction in Richardson? As of now, Greenwood Square is selling, with homes from $620,000. Greenwood Park is approved but the former nursing home on the site isn't expected to come down until fall 2026, with homes priced $800,000 to $1.1 million once construction follows. Outside of those two projects and the built-out Mimosa Place, new single-family inventory in Richardson is scarce.
Will the new CORE District apartments affect nearby home values? The 281-unit project on Polk Street and the earlier Belt+Main development add rental supply, not owner-occupied competition. That mainly affects rental yield for investors considering a single-family rental near downtown, rather than resale pricing for owner-occupants.
Richardson's market rewards buyers who know which few blocks are actually building something new and which zip codes are quietly cooling behind a rising citywide average. If you're weighing Richardson against Plano, McKinney, or another North Texas suburb, Cardinal Realty Group can walk you through what your budget actually buys block by block. Schedule a free consultation and get your instant home valuation to start with real numbers instead of a citywide average.
