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Residential
Texas

Texas has four of the nation’s 10 largest home-start markets

Dallas, Houston top the ranking by real estate data firm Zonda

(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)

Four of the top 10 U.S. markets for housing starts are in the Lone Star State, according to a new ranking from real estate data firm Zonda.

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked number one in the nation,with 54,281 housing starts so far this year, followed by Houston in second place with 42,567. Austin ranked fifth, with 26,993 starts, and San Antonio was seventh, with 23,878.

Of the four big Texas metros, San Antonio had the largest percentage increase year over year, with nearly 26 percent more housing starts than the same period in 2021. Austin had 10.2 percent more starts, and DFW had 8.8 percent more than last year. Houston’s housing starts were barely changed — up a paltry 0.2 percent.

(Zonda)

(Zonda)

The pace of growth in home starts in each city other than Houston well outpaces those of similarly hot markets like Southern California, Las Vegas, South Florida, and Nashville, according to the data.

Houston’s low increase is explained by home building almost completely stalling earlier this year due to supply chain shortages.

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Homebuilders around Dallas, meanwhile, have been racing to absorb the influ of out-of-state migrants flocking to Texas, as DFW’s northern suburbs have been their top destination. Several developers are entering the build-to-rent market in the Dallas area to accommodate the influx.

But that momentum may not continue as the cooling market has led some Dallas-area homebuilders to pull back on future housing starts. Several of DFW’s northern suburbs have already seen a significant drop in building permits issued this year.

In some parts of North Texas, high-end home sales have already tipped into a buyer’s market.

Houston has also seen its housing market cool in recent months, with sales falling 8.6 percent year over year in June — the third consecutive month of decline. An increasing number of Houston home sellers are starting to cut their asking prices.

Austin, meanwhile, led the nation in homebuilding in May, but in that same month sales fell, as prices hit record highs.

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