reaching new heights

Houston apartment construction surges to 6th highest in the nation

Apartment construction is soaring sky high in Houston.

cdngeneral.rentcafe.com

Apartment construction has been skyrocketing in Houston, and according to a new insight report from RentCafe, the metro area has the sixth highest new apartment construction rate nationwide in 2024.

The report from August 7 analyzed new apartment construction data across 369 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). For the purpose of the study, only apartment buildings containing 50 or more units were included. Any U.S. metros with fewer than 300 units or fewer than two properties/buildings were excluded.

The top five metros with the highest rates of newly built apartments expected in 2024 are New York City, New York (No. 1); Dallas, Texas (No. 2); Austin, Texas (No. 3); Phoenix, Arizona (No. 4); and Atlanta, Georgia (No. 5). Dallas-Fort Worth developers are expected to build a staggering 32,932 total apartment units in 2024, which is just three fewer units than No. 1-ranking New York City's anticipated goal.

The Houston metro area is still expected to complete 18,301 new apartments by the end of the year, so construction appears to be keeping up alongside the top five metros. In just Houston proper, developers are anticipating 8,159 completed units by year-end.

Houston also landed in the No. 3 spot for the highest apartment construction rate between 2020 and 2022, with 53,741 new apartment units opening around the metro since the beginning of the so-called "pandemic building boom."

The report attributes booming construction rates to each metro's steady population growth, the area's thriving job market, and its desirability among major employers.

"Demand for rental apartments in the U.S. continues to outstrip supply, even with recent construction efforts mirroring the building boom of the early 1970s — when a comparable number of rentals entered the market as Baby Boomers were coming of age — due to significant growth in the renter population in the last 50 years," the report's author wrote.

Houston makes up the bulk of new apartments in the area, while Spring is expected to build the second highest number of new apartments in the metro, totaling 2,236 units. Other suburbs like Katy and Richmond will complete an anticipated 1,464 and 907 apartments by the end of the year, respectively.

Here's how many new apartments other Houston-area cities expect to build by the end of 2024:

Conroe – 830 units
Fulshear – 660 units
Montgomery – 626 units
Cypress – 587 units
Humble – 470 units

Houston apartment construction by 2028
Based on the number of newly built apartments from 2019 to 2023, RentCafe's analysts extrapolated that New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin will continue dominating new apartment construction through 2028. But unlike past years when there was a steady growth in completed units, the report predicts construction will dwindle until 2027; then it will experience a big hike in 2028.

"[A]partment construction starts are expected to keep falling throughout the next year as developers struggle to get financing due to stricter loan standards amid economic uncertainties, which causes delays in projects," the report said.

For context, Dallas-Fort Worth had the highest number of new apartments completed over the five-year period – 128,418 units – from 2019 to 2023, versus New York's 116,207 newly built units. Houston built 83,972 new units during the same time period, landing at No. 3 nationally.

RentCafe calculated New York will once again lead the nation with 150,327 new apartments built by the end of 2028, and DFW will trail behind with 108,178 completed units. The Metroplex's anticipated figures are 28 percent lower than New York's expected apartments.

Houston, however, will slow down construction with a projected 55,785 new apartments by 2028, and the metro will claim No. 9 nationwide.

"[S]everal large metros are set to slow the pace of new apartment construction by 2028, yet they remain some of the nation's heaviest builders," the report said. "Specifically, Houston will welcome 28,187 fewer new apartments compared to the five years leading up to 2024."

The full report and its methodology can be found on rentcafe.com.

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red-hot housing

Houston boasts No. 20 hottest real estate market among big U.S. cities

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It doesn't get much hotter than the Houston housing market. A new report has ranked H-Town as the 20th best real estate market among America's biggest cities right now.

WalletHub's annual study, "Best Real Estate Markets (2026)," compares the real estate markets in 300 U.S. cities based on 17 relevant metrics, such as "housing market attractiveness," home value forecasts, housing affordability, population growth, and many others. Cities were also ranked by size: large cities with over 300,000 residents; midsize cities with 150,000-300,000 residents; and small cities with fewer than 150,000 residents.

In the overall ranking of the best housing markets in America, regardless of city size, Houston ranks 90th out of all 300 cities.

WalletHub ranks Houston's real estate market No. 102 nationally, and its "affordability and economic environment" ranks 111th overall.

This is how WalletHub ranks the "health" of Houston's housing market (where No. 1 is the best and No. 150 is average):

No. 51 – Job Growth Rate
No. 96 – Home Price as a Percentage of Income
No. 99 – Median Home-Price Appreciation
No. 128 – Foreclosure Rate
No. 159 – Share of Seriously Underwater Mortgages
No. 172 – Percentage of Delinquent Mortgage Holders
No. 173 – Median Days on the Market
No. 192 – Maintenance Costs as a Percentage of Income

Despite Houston's good standing among the biggest cities in America, a separate WalletHub report claims Houston is one of the worst cities for first-time homebuyers. Instead, Houstonians are turning to popular ZIP codes in suburbs like Cypress and Katy, which rank among the hottest places to move to in the U.S.

Other high-performing housing markets in Texas
Two popular North Texas suburbs — Frisco and McKinney — topped WalletHub's overall list of the best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026 at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, and they locked in the top two spots in the midsize city ranking, too.

Frisco tops the nationwide "affordability and economic environment" category, and ranks No. 2 nationally for its real estate market.

"When you look at home prices as a percentage of income, [Frisco] is the 95th-cheapest among the 300 cities in our study," the report said. "But it’s the 11th-cheapest city for phone service and the 11th-cheapest for maintenance and energy."

Frisco boasts the highest share of houses that were built between 2010 and 2024, at nearly 47 percent, which WalletHub says is "good news for people who want all the benefits of a recently-constructed home," without having to "put in a lot of work" to renovate an older or run down home.

"If you aim to make a profit in the long run with your housing purchase, you’ll need to look beyond tangible factors like square footage and style," the report's author wrote. "Those factors certainly drive up property values. From an investor’s standpoint, though, they hold less significance than historical market trends and the economic health of residents."

Nearby Denton and Allen also made the overall top 10, respectively ranking as the 5th and 8th best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026. Denton similarly ranked 5th in the midsize city rankings, and Allen topped the list of small cities.

The top 10 best real estate markets in America for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Frisco, Texas
No. 2 – McKinney, Texas
No. 3 – Murfreesboro, Tennessee
No. 4 – Durham, North Carolina
No. 5 – Denton, Texas
No. 6 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 7 – Madison, Wisconsin
No. 8 – Allen, Texas
No. 9 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 10 – Irvine, California

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