Neighborhood facts and map

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Number of homes	1,501
Median price	$931,700
Median price per square foot	$247.71
Median size	4,126 square feet
Median lot size	12,265 square feet
Median year built	1942
Average number of bedrooms	4.0
Average number of baths	4.2
Median estimated tax	$27,603
School district	Houston Independent School District
Schools	River Oaks Elementary, Lanier Middle School, Lamar High School

Source: Crawford Realty Advisors prepared this analysis based on information compiled by the Houston Association of Realtors -

Cream of home crop: River Oaks

Although million-dollar homes have spilled into many areas in recent years, Houston's finest neighborhood still stands alone.

"River Oaks definitely maintains its status as the elite neighborhood of Houston," says architectural historian Stephen Fox.

When it comes to mansions, River Oaks wins hands down.

In sales over $3 million, no other community comes close. Since 1982, 60 such houses sold there, compared with 13 in Memorial and four in the Rice/Museum area, according to John Daugherty, Realtors.

What can you get for $3 million?

Now listed for sale is a three-story colonial with 9,300 square feet. Built in 1969, the home has nine bathrooms.

For $2,295,000, you could buy a brick mansion on River Oaks Boulevard, which leads up to the exclusive River Oaks Country Club. The 6,300-square-foot house was built in 1930.

A 13,000-square-foot mansion on Del Monte Drive is listed for sale at $6.5 million. It has 11 bathrooms and a 53-foot-long game room.

Homes over $3 million aren't the only ones selling well. Overall, River Oaks is off to a good start this year, with 46 sales through May.

That compares with 87 sold in all of last year, 73 in 2001 and 94 in 2000, when the economy was stronger.

Minutes from downtown, River Oaks is known nationally as a prime example of a 1920s-era elite country club residential neighborhood.

The development, planned by Hugh Potter and brothers Will and Mike Hogg on the banks of Buffalo Bayou, has maintained its mystique since the beginning, when it was marketed as not just a neighborhood but a way of life.

Distinctive for its gracious mansions with expansive lawns and pockets of gardens along the streets, the neighborhood showcases homes by renowned architects including John F. Staub and Birdsall P. Briscoe in the 1920s and 1930s and modern homes by MacKie & Camrath, Hugo Neuhaus and Bolton & Barnstone in the 1950s.

Peter Wareing, grandson of John Staub, lives in a home reminiscent of his family's roots in western Massachusetts. It features wood shingles and a steeply pitched roof.

"My grandmother's parents thought my grandfather was bringing their daughter down to the Wild, Wild West in Houston in 1920," Wareing said. "He built her a New England-style house to remind her of home."

Wareing has enjoyed seeing several of the homes built by his grandfather restored.

The character of River Oaks has changed some as older houses have been replaced. New houses sometimes top 35,000 square feet, which is not a problem on a multi-acre lot. But the scale of some "really does make a change in the way that you experience the street and the whole neighborhood," says Fox.

Homes featuring true English, Georgian or French architecture with redeeming qualities have the best chance of survival.

"If they're architecturally right, people will restore them," says real estate broker John Daugherty. "If they're not architecturally right, people will tear them down and start over."

Daugherty, whose firm handles many sales in River Oaks, offered some superlatives. The two highest sales, both homes designed by Staub, exceeded $10 million: the English regency-style Cullen house once owned by Oscar Wyatt at 1620 River Oaks Blvd.; and a limestone-faced French chateau at 2960 Lazy Lane.

Among the most expensive lot sales ever is a 3.6-acre parcel on Lazy Lane once owned by Judge Roy Hofheinz. It sold for close to $5 million. Lots in River Oaks range from 60-feet-by-120-feet for the smallest to six acres for the biggest.

The neighborhood is home to well-known executives, surgeons, financiers, sports stars and auto dealers.

Tilman Fertitta, head of Landry's Restaurants, recently built a mansion on one of the shady lanes that's a five-minute drive from the company's Galleria-area headquarters.

Former basketball star Clyde Drexler recently sold his Inwood Drive mansion with an indoor handball court. It was listed at $8.95 million.

River Oaks has more competition than ever from other neighborhoods.

Memorial, which covers a larger area, surpassed River Oaks in the number of sales in the seven-figure market a few years ago, Daugherty says.

Unique to River Oaks are the two historic homes that are part of the Museum of Fine Arts: Ima Hogg's estate at Bayou Bend and the Rienzi collection of European decorative arts at 1406 Kirby Drive.

Neighborhood facts and map

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Number of homes	1,501
Median price	$931,700
Median price per square foot	$247.71
Median size	4,126 square feet
Median lot size	12,265 square feet
Median year built	1942
Average number of bedrooms	4.0
Average number of baths	4.2
Median estimated tax	$27,603
School district	Houston Independent School District
Schools	River Oaks Elementary, Lanier Middle School, Lamar High School

Source: Crawford Realty Advisors prepared this analysis based on information compiled by the Houston Association of Realtors -