They come, we build
Houston booms among nation's top 10 markets for new apartments
It’s not all in your head. Those new apartments you spotted on your way to work probably did just pop up — and it’s happening in big numbers in Houston and around the state, according to a new study.
RentCafe estimates 7,143 new apartments will be built in the Houston metro by the end of 2019 — the 10th highest projection nationally. Nearly half of those new units will rise within the city of Houston proper.
And these aren’t vanity projects. With more than 90,000 new residents calling the Houston area home, we need all the apartments we can get.
Houston leads the region in terms of projected new apartment units at 3,163, followed by Conroe's 724 expected units and The Woodlands' 678.
Most of Texas is booming, too. No. 1 on RentCafe's list is Dallas-Fort Worth, with 22,196 new units expected by the end of the year. No. 5 Austin is expected to bring 10,783 new units to the region. Meanwhile, 3,510 new units will be built in San Antonio, a steep decline of 41 percent from the 5,993 units built there in 2018.
Nationally, Seattle makes for a distant second behind DFW with 13,682 new units expected, followed by New York City, which was No. 1 in 2018, with 13,418 units planned for this year.
Unlike the Lone Star State, the nation as a whole is seeing a slump in apartment construction. The 299,442 new apartments expected in 2019 represent an 8.2 percent drop from 2018’s 326,240 new units, which also were weaker numbers than in 2017, when 331,765 new apartments were built.