Under construction

Austin booms as No. 6 metro for new homes being built in U.S.

Austin landed in sixth place among major metro areas for the total number of housing permits in 2024.

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Driven by population growth, nation-leading numbers of residential rooftops are popping up across Austin and the rest of Texas.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Zillow, Construction Coverage found 32,294 new residential units were authorized in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro in 2024. That figure landed Austin in sixth place among major metro areas for the total number of housing permits, including those for single-family homes, apartments, and condos.

Dallas-Fort Worth was in the No. 1 spot with 71,788 new residential units authorized. Right behind DFW was the Houston metro area in second place, with 65,747 residential permits. In third place was the country’s largest metro, New York City (57,929 permits).

Elsewhere in Texas, the San Antonio metro ranked 20th (14,857 permits).

Construction Coverage also sorted major metro areas proportionally, based on the number of new housing units authorized per 1,000 existing homes in 2024. Raleigh, North Carolina, held the No. 1 spot (28.8 permits per 1,000 existing homes), followed by Austin at No. 2 (28.6), DFW at No. 3 (22.2), Houston at No. 4 (21.6), and San Antonio at No. 13 (13.6).

A Newsweek analysis of Census Bureau data shows that across Texas, building permits for 225,756 new residential units were approved in 2024 — a trend fueled largely by activity in DFW, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. That put Texas atop the list of states building the most residential units for the year.

Among the states, Construction Coverage ranks Texas sixth for the number of residential building permits approved in 2024 per 1,000 existing homes (17.9).

Similarly, through the first eight months of 2025, more Census Bureau data showed 145,901 permits for new residential units were approved in Texas. That’s nearly 80,000 permits shy of the 2024 total.

Extra housing is being built in Texas to meet demand spurred by population growth. From April 2020 to July 2024, the state’s population increased 7.3 percent, the Census Bureau says.

While builders are busy constructing new housing in Texas, they’re not necessarily profiting as much as they used to from homebuilding activity.

“Market conditions remain challenging, with two-thirds of builders reporting they are offering incentives to move buyers off the fence,” North Carolina homebuilder Buddy Hughes, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said in a December news release. “Meanwhile, builders are contending with rising material and labor prices, as tariffs are having serious repercussions on construction costs.”

construction home-for-sale new homes

on the move

Austin was a top-3 destination for movers in 2025, U-Haul says

Photo by Dan Williams on Unsplash

Austin attracted more newcomers than almost any other U.S. metro in 2025.

Austin attracted more newcomers than almost all other U.S. metros in 2025, according to a new migration report from U-Haul.

The Austin metro ranked No. 3 nationally in U-Haul's annual list of the top destinations for people on the move in 2025.

U-Haul's annual Top U.S. Growth Metros and Cities report is based on how many one-way transactions were made by do-it-yourself movers using a U-Haul truck, trailer, or U-Box moving container across the U.S. and Canada. According to the study's methodology, more than 2.5 million one-way moves took place in North America in 2025.

Austin last ranked as the 5th most-moved-to destination, a position it held for two consecutive years starting in 2023.

Additionally, Texas reclaimed the No. 1 spot as U-Haul's Top Growth State in 2025, which was held by South Carolina in 2024.

"U-Haul customers arriving in Texas accounted for 50.7 percent of all one-way traffic in and out of the state last year (49.3 percent leaving)," the report said. "Compared to 2024, customers coming to Texas rose 3 percent [year-over-year] while departures rose just 1 percent [year-over-year]."

Dallas and Houston, respectively, claimed No. 1 and No. 2 in U-Haul's top growth metros for 2025. This is the second year in a row Dallas has remained at the top of the list, while Houston previously ranked No. 9 in 2024.

Two booming Central Texas cities also appeared in U-Haul's separate list of the top growth cities: Seguin (No. 14) and New Braunfels (No. 15).

"We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves," said U-Haul International president John "J.T." Taylor. "But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers."

The top 10 growth metros in 2025 are:

No. 1 – Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
No. 2 – Houston, Texas
No. 3 – Austin, Texas
No. 4 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 5 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 6 – Nashville, Tennessee
No. 7 – Charleston, South Carolina
No. 8 – Raleigh, North Carolina
No. 9 – Atlanta, Georgia
No. 10 – Brownsville & McAllen, Texas

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