REAL ESTATE NEWS

More homes are being built in Houston than any other U.S. city

More people would rather buy a newly built home than a pre-existing one.

Houston is accommodating its housing needs by building more homes than any other U.S. city, a new report has found.

According to a new ConsumerAffairs housing report, Houston has the No. 1 highest rate of new home construction in the nation for 2025. The research platform analyzed new building permits and new construction home sales from January and February 2025 in the 150 largest U.S. cities.

Houston dominates all other housing markets with the highest growth rate in new building permits, totaling more than 11,000 permits during the first two months of the year. The city also leads with the highest rate of new construction homes sold during the same time period, with more than 1,300 sales.

ConsumerAffairs says Houston is the only major U.S. metro that doesn't implement zoning laws, meaning housing density is not directly regulated and communities don't need to be separated by "use type." Many rules that are in place are in favor of high density housing, the report added.

"The absence of these laws has contributed to Houston’s infamous sprawl, but it’s a boon for developers and homebuilders, who have far fewer restrictions to navigate when constructing new homes," the report said. "After 1998 reforms to the city’s development ordinance lowered the minimum lot size for single-family homes from 5,000 to 1,400 square feet, more than 25,000 new homes were developed on these new, smaller lots between 1999 and 2016."

The city is keeping pace with consumer trends: According to recent study by the National Association of Home Builders, more than three in five homebuyers would prefer to purchase a new-construction home over an existing one, the ConsumerAffairs report says.

Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas followed closely behind Houston with the second-highest rate of new home construction nationwide. The metro issued over 9,800 building permits in January and February, and 741 newly built homes were sold during that time.

San Antonio (No. 8) and Austin (No. 9) also earned spots among the top 10. ConsumerAffairs said the rise of artificial intelligence is playing a key role in fast-tracking development opportunities in the state capital.

"After a 2022 audit found that it took an average of 345 days — more than 11 months — to review a building application, the city began a pilot program using AI to review building plans and flag them for inconsistencies between construction applications and Austin’s building rules," the report's author wrote.

Austin may be one of the original pioneers to implement the technology, and it appears other major cities are following in the Texas Capital's footsteps. After several wildfires devastated Southern California in January 2025, the city and county of Los Angeles launched a new program using AI to help rebuild housing in the metro area.

The top 10 cities with the highest rates of new home construction in the U.S. are:

No. 1 – Houston, Texas
No. 2 – Dallas, Texas
No. 3 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 4 – Atlanta, Georgia
No. 5 – New York, New York
No. 6 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 7 – Orlando, Florida
No. 8 – San Antonio, Texas
No. 9 – Austin, Texas
No. 10 – Tampa, Florida

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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)

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