HBW reports on residential construction permit activity in Texas for 2017.
Texas Housing Starts 2012-2017
Last year, Texas had its best year for housing starts on record in more than five years. In 2017, there was a total of more than 70,800 housing starts in the combined metro areas of Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, reflecting a 6% year-over-year increase in new residential construction activity.
While the Houston area landed top spot for total housing starts last year (29,418 permits), Dallas ranked highest for higher value construction having more than 2,000 housing starts with values greater than $500k. Dallas also experienced the greatest year-over-year increase in new residential construction permits (+10%) and ranked second highest for total starts (23,716 permits) on file with HBW for the year.
Texas Total Residential Permits by Area – 2016 vs. 2017
When looking for areas with the greatest growth patterns and annual increases in new residential construction, Dallas counties are front and center as Rockwall County (~1,300 permits) and Ellis County (1,534 permits) experienced year-over-year increases of 38% and 31% respectively. In the Houston area, counties including Montgomery (+24%) and Harris (+10%) were driving the overall 7% year-over-year increase in Houston home building, as other areas like Galveston took a hit (-15%) in housing starts.
Throughout the Lone Star State, there were counties that reflected both growth and held the greatest concentration of new home construction… As previously mentioned, Harris County (Houston) experienced a 10% year-over-year increase resulting in it ranking #1 statewide for total housing starts (15,832 permits). Other counties where new home construction was on a high include the Dallas counties of Collin (7,051 permits) and Tarrant (6,777 permits), as well as Travis County (6,585 permits) in Austin.
Texas Top 5 Counties 2017
Information utilized for Texas residential construction reports was directly derived from HBW construction data reports. To gain access to the HBW database and receive custom and detailed reports on the latest residential and commercial building activity in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, and Oklahoma, please contact HBW for details.