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    New Museum District high-rise lures tenants with events and on-site bar

    Holly Beretto
    May 25, 2026 | 11:00 am

    High-rise apartment living is taking on a new look at Forme, which just opened its doors in the Museum District. Located at 5501 LaBranch Street, the 33-story building boasts urban living centered on wellness, productivity, community, and restoration, with a setup that blends the best of luxury hospitality and amenity-driven living.

    Residences range from 500-square-foot studios and efficient junior one-bedrooms and studios to 1,400-square-foot three-bedroom homes with panoramic views stretching across Hermann Park, downtown Houston, and the Museum District skyline. Rents start at $1,750 per month.

    Designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative and operated by Sentral, Forme’s intended residents are young professionals seeking to balance busy personal and professional lives with supersized amenities tailored for recharging, re-focusing, and networking. To that end, the building’s 60,000 square feet of shared space provides a plethora of amenities and gathering spots, including a 20,000-square-foot fitness and recovery area, a 9,000-square-foot outdoor pool deck with pool and expansive hot tub, and 20,000 square feet of flexible coworking space along with a 12th-floor cocktail lounge dubbed The Branch on La Branch.

    Apartment interiors emphasize warm modernism and everyday functionality, pairing floor-to-ceiling windows with quartz countertops, gas ranges, soft-close cabinetry, walk-in closets, smart-home technology, and wide-plank flooring.

    “Forme was conceived as a living environment where the experience extends far beyond the apartment itself,” said Myron Washington, associate director of portfolio operations for Sentral, in a statement. “Every space inside the building was designed to support the rhythms of modern life – from movement, recovery, and creativity to productivity and social connection. Residents can begin the day with an exercise class, work from a fully serviced coworking floor, attend a wellness lecture or networking mixer in the evening, and end the night poolside with neighbors overlooking the skyline. It creates a completely different relationship between people and where they live.”

    Residents can expect sunrise workouts, run-and-brunch gatherings, poolside picnics, wellness activations, social mixers, and professional networking events. When it opens in July, The Branch on La Branch will offer a boutique hotel-style cocktail lounge and raw bar. In the meantime, weekly wine tastings with light bites are available every Thursday from 6-8 pm thru the end of the World Cup, featuring international wines reflective of the countries playing matches in Houston. These events are also open to the public, and reservations can be made through Sentral management at Forme.

    Forme apartment building exterior

    Photo courtesy of Sentral

    Forme, a new high-rise apartment building in the Museum District, offers amenity-driven living.

    The complex’s fitness center offers dedicated spaces for strength training, Pilates, yoga, HIIT, mobility work, cardio conditioning, and recovery, along with hydromassage chairs, luxury locker rooms, personal training services, and scheduled fitness classes led by an onsite fitness director. The 1,200-square-foot pool and 550-square-foot hot tub are surrounded by daybeds and chaise lounges, making the pool deck a natural place for sunset gatherings and other events.

    Residents who work remotely can do so in Forme’s flexible coworking space operated by Regus. Spanning 20,000 square feet, the space includes reservable offices, quiet zones, collaborative areas, and meeting rooms designed to support both focus and connection.

    In addition to traditional apartments, the high-rise also has furnished residences, extended stays of 30 days or more, and nightly accommodations.

    “Every detail — from the way you work and train to how you rest and connect — is designed to meet you where you are and move with you,” according to Forme’s mission statement.

    With so many amenities and so much thought given to designing an ecosystem where residents can live, work, and play, Forme should hit a sweet spot for a certain kind of renter. The high-rise’s location, within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, restaurants such as Lucille's and MF Sushi, and Hermann Park, is merely icing on the 33-story cake, giving residents easy access to some of the city’s best cultural, entertainment, dining, and wellness spots.

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    red-hot housing

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

    Amber Heckler
    Aug 20, 2026 | 9:00 am
    Houston neighborhood with skyline
    Getty Images
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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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