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    CultureMap Exclusive

    Modern Hill Country homes are coming to The Heights area: New community to change Houston's look

    Ralph Bivins
    Nov 15, 2013 | 1:21 pm

    A new Inner Loop community will be ushering in a new look in Texas home building. It’s what the home builder is calling “Modern Hill Country.”

    Partners in Building, a Texas home builder that operates in Houston and Austin, recently noticed that its new Modern Hill Country homes were extremely popular with buyers in the Ironwood Estates community in Cinco Ranch in West Houston. So the firm is bring that theme to its new Inner Loop development.

    Jim Lemming, president of Partners in Building, describes the style as “agrarian” with its clean, simple lines and warm combinations of stone, wood, glass and metal.

    Other home builders are beginning to imitate the Modern Hill Country style.

    The 3.5-acre Inner Loop community, called Fountain Park, will feature 56 homes with prices beginning at more than $400,000. The development is located on the former site of Moss Landscaping Company on West 26th Street, just west of North Shepherd Drive and just south of Loop 610.

    Fountain Park will feature a central green space, providing the open area that most buyers demand in today’s market. Sales of the Modern Hill Country homes will begin this spring.

    Mike Woodley of Woodley Architectural Group, which developed the Modern Hill Country design describes it as “an agrarian style, warm but contemporary.”

    It has “clean lines, but not a stark modernist look,” Lemming says.

    Lemming, previously an executive with Ryland Homes and John Laing Homes, says other home builders are beginning to imitate the Modern Hill Country style.

    Builder magazine, the home building industry’s leading trade publication, predicted that this design style is “about to become Texas’ next big thing in single-family.”

    Partners in Building, which bills itself as the “No. 1 Custom Builder in Texas” will sell about 200 homes in Houston in 2013 and about 50 homes in Austin.

    A home by Partners in Building that demonstrates the Modern Hill Country design

    Modern Hill Country story-New Heights project November 2013 outdoor dining area
      
    Partners in Building
    A home by Partners in Building that demonstrates the Modern Hill Country design
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    rent affordability news

    Houstonians need to make nearly $68,000 to afford rent in 2025

    Amber Heckler
    May 13, 2025 | 12:30 pm
    Dolce Midtown Apartments Houston
    Photo courtesy of Dolce Midtown Apartments
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    A new rental report from Zillow has revealed Houston renters need to make about 23 percent more money than they did five years ago in order to afford rent in 2025.

    Zillow analysts examined the income needed to afford rent in 50 major U.S. metros, and determined rent prices in each city as of April 2025.

    The average Houston renter needs to make $67,731 a year to afford living in the city, the report found. To afford rent for a single-family home, the income needed increases even further to $85,017.

    Despite Houston's rising rent cost of living, it's still more affordable than many other cities. Nationally, the average income needed for someone to comfortably afford rent comes out to nearly $81,000. The study says that figure has increased nearly 35 percent since 2020.

    "Housing costs have surged since pre-pandemic, with rents growing quite a bit faster than wages," said senior Zillow economist Orphe Divounguy. "This often leaves little room for other expenses, making it particularly difficult for those hoping to save for a down payment on a future home. High upfront costs are often overlooked, which can keep renters in their current homes."

    Rent prices in Houston averaged $1,693 last month, which is less costly than the national average rent price of $2,024. Additionally, Houstonians are spending about 24 percent of their income on rent, while the typical American spends almost 30 percent of their income on rent.

    Renters are also saving hundreds of dollars in comparison to those that own their homes, as a recent SmartAsset study discovered the median monthly housing costs for a Houston homeowner came out to $2,219.

    At least we're not living on the East or West Coast, where eight U.S. metros require six-figure incomes to afford rent. Residents in San Jose, California need to make $136,532 a year to afford rent, the highest out of all 50 U.S. cities. Rent prices in San Jose came out to $3,413 in April.

    Here's how much money renters need to afford living in other Texas metros, according to Zillow:

    • Dallas – $71,413
    • Austin – $68,840
    • San Antonio – $58,590
    zillowhousing reportrent pricesaffordabilityhouston
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