apartment building boom
Houston ranks 3rd on new list of U.S. cities building the most apartments
As long as the people keep moving, Houston will keep building.
It seems that Houston will keep building as long as the people keep moving here. An analysis of new apartment construction finds that Houston has the No. 3 highest apartment construction rate out of all U.S. cities this year, and it ranks 8th out of all U.S. metropolitan areas.
RentCafe's report, "New Apartment Construction Tops 500K Units This Year, More Than Half in 1 Region" examined apartment building data across 369 U.S. metro areas, specifically buildings containing 50 or more units.
More than 500,000 apartments are in development throughout the country this year, the report found, though that's significantly lower than the 640,000-plus units that were completed nationwide by the end of 2024.
According to RentCafe's findings, 7,770 new apartments are expected to be built in Houston from the beginning of the year to the end of December 2025. That's only 389 fewer units than what the city was building in 2024, though the slower development isn't stopping Houston's ever-growing population.
The report says more than half of all incoming apartments in 2025 are being built in the South, where five major Texas cities are leading the building boom: Austin (No. 1), Houston (No. 3), San Antonio (No. 7), Dallas (No. 9), and Fort Worth (No. 20).
RentCafe attributes Texas' apartment building boom to the state's reputation as a "migration magnet" with excellent job and economic growth rates.
"Southern metros typically offer streamlined approval processes and fewer regulatory hurdles, making it easier to bring multifamily projects to market," said Yardi Matrix senior analyst and manager of business intelligence Doug Ressler. "At the same time, elevated home prices and a shortage of attainable for-sale housing are pushing more residents toward rentals. For many households, single-family (housing) ownership is simply out of reach — fueling demand for rental housing."
Where Houston lands among the top 20 U.S. metros for apartment construction
A separate RentCafe ranking of the top 20 U.S. metropolitan areas (not cities) building the most new apartments in 2025 places New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin among the top three, leaving Houston behind as No. 8.
Overall, Houston and its surrounding suburbs are expected to complete 14,439 apartments by the end of this year, the report found. Houston proper is producing a majority of those finished apartments, while Cypress has the second-highest rate of new apartment construction in the metro with 1,343 units expected to be developed by the end of 2025.
Here's how many new apartments other Houston-area cities plan to complete by the end of 2025:
- Spring – 1,109 units
- Humble – 792 units
- Katy –629 units
Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth has the second-highest number of new units being built in the U.S. this year, totaling 28,958 apartments. However, RentCafe says that's a 22.4 percent drop in completed apartments as compared to 2024.
"Even with this slowdown, the Metroplex remains one of the top places in the country for new apartment completions," the report's author wrote. "As such, this dip in construction may just be the market taking a breather after a period of intense growth. But, with so many people still moving to the area, the demand for housing remains high."
The top 20 U.S. metro areas building the most new apartments in 2025 are:
- No. 1 – New York, New York
- No. 2 – Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
- No. 3 – Austin, Texas
- No. 4 – Phoenix, Arizona
- No. 5 –Atlanta, Georgia
- No. 6 – Charlotte, North Carolina
- No. 8 – Houston, Texas
- No. 9 – Washington, D.C.
- No. 10 – Denver, Colorado
