September 2026 edition, updated with Census permits through July 2026
Houston Builds More Homes Than Anywhere In America
The Nation's Home Building Leaderboard
What It Costs To Build A New Home In Houston
Where Houston's Most Valuable Homes Get Built
Houston's Luxury Market In 2026
The Anatomy Of A New Home's Price
Shares are national averages from the National Association of Home Builders' 2024 Cost of Constructing a Home survey. Custom luxury homes in Houston's close-in neighborhoods typically carry a far larger land share.
Where The Construction Dollars Go
New Houstonians Since You Opened This Page
Place Your Project On The Houston Map Of Construction Value
Enter a construction budget for the house itself, not the land. We place it against the average permitted construction value of new homes across the metro and in Houston's luxury enclaves in 2025.
Houston Home Building, Answered
Short answers built from the data on this page.
Sources And Method
Every figure comes from a public source. Permit counts and construction values are Census Bureau Building Permits Survey data for the Houston metropolitan area and individual cities; the metro was redefined as Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands beginning in 2024. Construction value is the value builders report on permits, which excludes land and often understates final cost. Where a city did not report to the Census Bureau, figures are Census estimates and are marked as such.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, annual metropolitan files 2009 to 2025 and year-to-date through July 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, annual place files for the South Region, 2014 to 2025.
- Houston Association of Realtors, monthly Housing Market Updates, January to July 2026, and the full-year 2025 update.
- National Association of Home Builders, Cost of Constructing a Home, 2024 survey.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates, as reported by the Greater Houston Partnership.
- Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, April to September 2026.