How Is the Houston Metro Rental Market Doing in 2026? June Data & Landlord Insights

Your monthly guide to rental conditions in Houston Metro. This is our July 2026 report, covering June 2026 rental data: what rents looked like last month, what's driving the market, and what it means if you own a rental home.

Houston Metro Rental Market Snapshot — June 2026

Here's where Houston Metro rents stand as of June 2026, across all property types — apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes.

The Houston Metro median rent hit $2,151 in June 2026, up 3.26% year-over-year, with single-family leasing volume running 5.2% above last year's pace as the market moves into its peak summer season.

Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, all rental property types, June 2026.

What's Driving Houston Metro Rental Market Conditions Right Now

Houston Metro Rental Supply and New Construction

The supply glut that weighed on Houston rents through 2024 is clearing out. Apartment deliveries fell from 27,838 units in 2024 to 16,339 in 2025, the largest single-year delivery decline among major U.S. metros, and 2026 completions are tracking toward their lowest level since 2013. New groundbreakings dropped 22% in 2025, so even with roughly 27,183 units still under construction across 113 metro projects, the pipeline is thinning across all property types, from urban apartments in Midtown and EaDo to build-to-rent communities in Katy and Sugar Land.

Why People Rent in Houston Metro

Houston added just under 127,000 new residents in 2025, more than any other metro in the country, and those people have to live somewhere. Corporate demand anchors the suburban corridors: ExxonMobil's 385-acre campus in Spring, along with HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise nearby, keeps a steady stream of well-paid renters flowing into North Houston, while Clear Lake pulls families through NASA's Johnson Space Center and University of Houston–Clear Lake. With 30-year mortgage rates sitting at 6.49%, buying still costs more than renting for most households, which pushes more of that population growth straight into the rental market.

What This Means for Houston Metro Landlords

You are sitting in the strongest leasing window of the year right now. HAR reported 4,849 single-family leases in May 2026, up 5.2% year-over-year, and peak demand runs through September as summer job relocations and school-year moves hit full stride. Price to lease by the end of July, not October, because units that sit past Labor Day will face a much softer pool of applicants.

Houston Metro Rent by City — June 2026

Sugar Land and Pearland lead the Houston Metro table with the fastest leasing speeds at 41 and 43 days on market respectively, making them the strongest demand markets heading into peak summer season. At the other end, Houston proper sits well behind every suburb at 72 days on market, a gap that reflects the city's sheer size and inventory depth rather than a single neighborhood story. Most suburbs are leasing in the 41–57 day range, with Conroe and Pasadena trending slightly slower month-over-month and the tightest markets holding flat, suggesting the metro's suburban corridors are absorbing seasonal demand more efficiently than the urban core.

• Houston, TX: Rents in the city core are holding at $1,918 median, flat month-over-month and down just 0.8% from last June, which is closer to stability than decline given how much new supply has hit the urban core. At 72 days on market, homes here are leasing considerably slower than the suburbs, so pricing precisely at or just below comparable listings matters more than usual heading into the peak summer window.

• Sugar Land, TX: At $2,350 median rent and 41 days on market, Sugar Land is one of the fastest-leasing cities in the Houston metro right now, with rents flat both month-over-month and year-over-year. That combination of quick absorption and price stability suggests demand is keeping pace with available inventory, making this a low-friction market for owners who price correctly at the outset.

• The Woodlands, TX: The North Houston corporate corridor, anchored by ExxonMobil's 385-acre campus in Spring and nearby HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise headquarters, feeds The Woodlands with well-compensated, long-tenured renters who treat suburban master-planned communities as a premium. That tenant profile shows up in the numbers: median rent has climbed 15.1% year-over-year to $2,533, the strongest annual gain of any city in this report, while 45 days on market keeps absorption healthy.

• Pearland, TX: Median rent sits at $2,300, up 1.6% year-over-year and flat month-over-month, pointing to a market that is grinding higher at a measured pace rather than spiking or softening. At 43 days on market, homes here are leasing faster than the metro-wide average, which gives owners reasonable confidence that a well-priced listing will move before peak summer demand fades.

• Katy, TX: Median rent is $2,375, essentially unchanged month-over-month and off just 0.5% from last June, so pricing power is holding without meaningful growth on either side. At 46 days on market, absorption is solid and roughly in line with other western suburbs, meaning Katy continues to attract consistent tenant demand without the frenzied turnover speed of Sugar Land or Pearland.

• League City, TX: Clear Lake's proximity to NASA's Johnson Space Center and University of Houston–Clear Lake draws families with long time horizons, zoned to schools like Clear Lake High and Falcon Pass Elementary, which keeps tenant turnover low. League City fits that same profile: rents have risen 4.2% year-over-year to $2,360, but slipped 0.6% from last month, a small correction worth watching as summer leasing competition intensifies, while 50 days on market is still a reasonable absorption pace for the price point.

• Conroe, TX: At $1,838 median rent and up 4.9% year-over-year, Conroe offers one of the more affordable entry points among Houston Metro suburbs while still delivering meaningful annual rent growth. Leasing at 57 days on market is on the slower side relative to closer-in suburbs, so owners should account for that longer runway when setting vacancy budgets this summer.

• Spring, TX: The ExxonMobil campus and surrounding corporate demand in the North Houston corridor create a steady pipeline of professional renters, and Spring's numbers reflect that: rents are up 7.8% year-over-year to $1,907, with a 0.7% month-over-month nudge suggesting momentum has not peaked yet. At 54 days on market, absorption is slower than the tightest suburbs but still workable, particularly with peak leasing season running through September.

• Cypress, TX: Median rent in Cypress is $2,375, flat month-over-month but down 3.1% year-over-year, making it one of the softer rent stories in this report despite sitting at the same price point as Katy. At 49 days on market, leasing speed is fine, but the annual decline suggests owners here need to be realistic on pricing rather than anchoring to where rents were in mid-2025.

• Pasadena, TX: Median rent has moved up 0.9% month-over-month and 3.4% year-over-year to $1,557, the lowest price point in this table and a signal that Pasadena's affordability is still pulling renters who are priced out elsewhere in the metro. At 61 days on market, leasing takes longer here than most suburbs, so the rent growth is encouraging but owners should build extra lead time into their listing strategy.

Houston Metro Rent by Bedroom Count and Property Type — June 2026

Rent by Bedroom Count in Houston Metro

Rent across the Houston Metro follows a clear staircase pattern from 2-bedrooms upward, but the bottom of the range has an unusual twist: 1-bedrooms ($1,262 median) actually price $33 below studios ($1,295), making studios the pricier entry point despite offering less space. From there, each step up adds significant money, with the 2-bedroom median jumping $431 to $1,693 and the 3-bedroom adding another $580 to reach $2,273. The 3-to-4-bedroom move is smaller in percentage terms, a $454 increase to $2,727, but the overall spread from the cheapest tier (1-bedroom at $1,262) to the largest (4-bedroom at $2,727) spans $1,465 per month. Owners pricing across multiple unit sizes should account for that studio-versus-1-bedroom inversion, since standard assumptions about smaller units renting cheaper do not hold at the entry level here.

Rent by Property Type in Houston Metro

Single-family homes and townhouses sit at the top of the Houston Metro rent stack, commanding $2,420 and $2,399 per month respectively, each running roughly 11–12% above the blended median of $2,151. Condos land $240 below that blended figure at $1,912, but apartments are the real outlier: at $1,344, they rent for $807 less than the metro median and take 96 days to lease, nearly double the 50 days it takes to fill a single-family home. That DOM gap matters as much as the rent gap, because a vacant apartment sitting for three months erodes any rate advantage a landlord might expect from pricing competitively. Townhouses offer an interesting combination of near-single-family rents ($2,399) paired with slower leasing speed (65 days), suggesting that pricing precision at listing time is more important for that type than for single-family homes.

Data Sources & Methodology

• Rental market data: Median rents, days on market, listing counts, and rent change figures. Sourced from county public records, deed and tax assessor data, and rental listings on publicly accessible platforms.
• Doorstead Platform Data: Internal leasing outcomes from Doorstead-managed rental homes across all property types, including days to lease. Trailing 12 months.

Data refreshed monthly. Doorstead benchmarks reflect managed properties only and may not be representative of the broader Houston metro rental market.

City-Level Rental Market Reports

• Houston Rental Market Report