Texas Apartment Starts Hit 14-Year Low in 3rd Quarter

The number of apartments that got underway in Texas in 3rd quarter registered significantly below what the state has seen historically. In fact, quarterly starts hit a 14-year low.

A staggeringly few 4,200 units started across the state of Texas in 3rd quarter 2024, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, aggregated by RealPage. The last time the quarterly volume of starts was this low was back in 4th quarter 2010.

At first glance, just 4,200 units starting construction across the entire 268,000 or so square miles of Texas seems like a typo, since starts have averaged closer to 20,600 units per quarter in the past three years. In fact, just two years ago, the Austin market on its own saw starts get close to 7,000 units in 3rd quarter 2022. Fast forward to 3rd quarter 2024 and starts across the entire state were about a third of that volume.

Most recently, quarterly construction starts peaked at over 32,000 units in 2nd quarter 2022 in the state of Texas.

In the past 12 months overall, a total of just 42,000 total market-rate units have started across the Lone Star State. That was a 12-year low, as it was the lowest volume of annual starts dating back to 2012 in the Lone Star State. The most recent peak in annual starts volumes was in 4th quarter 2022, when more than 115,000 units got off the ground in Texas.

Since then, the state’s volume of annual construction starts have been steadily falling by an average of 7,000 units per quarter.

This slowdown in starts comes as the state of Texas is experiencing the nation’s most prolific supply wave in the past year.

For more information on the state of apartment markets in Texas, including forecasts, watch the webcast Market Intelligence: Q4 Texas Update.