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

Your monthly guide to rental conditions in Houston Metro. This is our August 2026 report, covering July 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 — July 2026

Here's where Houston Metro rents landed in July 2026, across all property types — apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes.

The Houston Metro median rent held at $1,806 in July 2026, up 1.29% year-over-year, with homes averaging 68 days on market — a pace that puts pricing discipline front and center for landlords trying to capture the tail end of summer leasing season.

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

What's Driving Houston Metro Rental Market Conditions Right Now

Houston Metro Rental Supply and New Construction

New supply is thinning fast across the Houston metro. Apartment deliveries fell from 27,838 units in 2024 to 16,339 in 2025, and 2026 completions are tracking toward their lowest level since 2013. The heaviest recent concentration landed inside the Loop and along the Inner Loop corridors (Midtown, Montrose, EaDo) where Class A multifamily targets young professionals, while suburban family corridors like the I-10/Katy Energy Corridor and the I-45/Woodlands stretch absorbed a meaningful share of build-to-rent product. With groundbreakings down 22% in 2025 and tariff-related cost pressure stalling new BTR commitments, that pipeline thins further over the next 12–18 months regardless of submarket.

Why People Rent in Houston Metro

Houston kept pulling people in at a serious clip, adding more than 120,000 residents in 2024, with the U.S. Census Bureau ranking it among the top three large-metro destinations nationally. No state income tax, a lower cost of living than coastal alternatives, and a deep employment base across energy, the Texas Medical Center, and logistics keep that flow going. At 6.66% on the 30-year fixed, buying a home costs enough more per month than renting that plenty of would-be buyers are staying renters longer, adding durable demand across the Katy, Woodlands, Heights, and Inner Loop submarkets.

What This Means for Houston Metro Landlords

The summer leasing window (June through August accounts for 40–50% of annual lease-ups) is effectively over, so price to move now rather than holding for a number above the market. A blended median of $1,806 and a 1.3% year-over-year gain suggest rent growth is modest, and with homes sitting 68 days on average, a vacant unit priced even slightly above market will bleed carrying costs fast as fall's slower season sets in.

Houston Metro Rent by City — July 2026

Sugar Land and Pearland lead the Houston Metro in leasing speed, averaging 39 and 42 days on market respectively, making them the clearest signals of where renter demand concentrated in June. At the other end, Houston and Pasadena were the slowest markets in the table, sitting at 75 and 73 days on market, with Pasadena also posting the sharpest month-over-month rent increase at +1.3%. Across the metro, leasing timelines spread widely, from under six weeks in Sugar Land, Pearland, and Katy to well over two months in Spring, Conroe, Pasadena, and Houston, so suburb location is doing a lot of work in determining how quickly a vacancy fills.

• Houston, TX: The city's median rent sat at $1,630 in July, the lowest among the cities tracked here, which partly explains its 75-day DOM, the longest in this group. Rents were roughly flat month-over-month (+0.1%) and essentially unchanged year-over-year (-0.4%), so owners should price precisely and lean on any neighborhood-specific draws to stand out in a slow-moving market.

• Sugar Land, TX: At $2,445 median rent and 39 days on market, Sugar Land leased faster than any other city in this table in July. Rents were flat both month-over-month and year-over-year, suggesting a stable market where demand is absorbing supply at current price points without needing discounts.

• The Woodlands, TX: This master-planned community 28 miles north of Downtown along I-45 is served by Conroe ISD (A+ rated) and includes top-performing schools like The Woodlands High School and College Park High School, making it a consistent draw for families. The 12.7% year-over-year rent increase to $2,500 is the strongest annual gain in this group, and at 50 days DOM, homes are leasing at a reasonable pace given that price point.

• Pearland, TX: Median rent reached $2,338 in July, up 4.9% year-over-year, with a 42-day DOM that puts it among the faster-leasing suburbs in this table. Month-over-month rents were flat, so the gains here are a sustained trend rather than a recent spike.

• Katy, TX: Families relocating to the Energy Corridor commute zone along I-10 consistently target Katy for its top-rated Katy ISD schools, including Cinco Ranch, Tompkins, and Seven Lakes high schools. Median rent came in at $2,397 in July with a 45-day DOM, and while month-over-month movement was flat, the 1.5% year-over-year gain shows steady, if modest, upward pressure.

• League City, TX: Median rent was $2,350 in July, up 7.1% year-over-year, one of the stronger annual gains among the suburbs tracked here. The month-over-month dip of 0.6% is worth watching but is small enough to treat as noise for now, especially given that 51-day DOM is still within a reasonable range for summer leasing.

• Conroe, TX: At $1,876, Conroe posted the second-lowest median rent in this table, and its 62-day DOM reflects a slower pace than most of the suburbs here. That said, a 7.9% year-over-year gain shows renters are increasingly finding their way to Conroe, likely as affordability pressure pushes them north of the loop.

• Spring, TX: Spring's 1.0% month-over-month gain was the second-largest MoM move in this group in July, pushing median rent to $2,036. The 10.4% year-over-year increase is one of the strongest annual gains in the table, and while 59-day DOM indicates a slower pace, the rent trajectory suggests demand is building here.

• Cypress, TX: Median rent sat at $2,434 in July, flat month-over-month and down 0.9% year-over-year, which is a mild softening against an otherwise mixed suburban picture. At 51 days DOM, Cypress is not leasing quickly, so owners should keep pricing sharp to avoid sitting on a vacancy as the summer window winds down.

• Pasadena, TX: Median rent was $1,545 in July, the lowest in this table, and at 73 days DOM it ranked as one of the slowest-leasing cities tracked here. The 1.3% month-over-month gain and 6.0% year-over-year increase show upward momentum, but the long lease-up time means pricing and presentation still matter a great deal for owners trying to move a unit quickly.

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

Rent by Bedroom Count in Houston Metro

Rents across the Houston metro follow a clear stair-step pattern from 2-bedrooms upward, but the studio-to-1-bedroom relationship flips that logic: 1-bedroom rentals came in at $1,229, actually $28 below the $1,257 studio median. From there, each additional bedroom adds meaningful cost, with the 2-bedroom median at $1,663 (+$434 over 1-bedrooms) and the 3-bedroom median at $2,210 (+$547, the steepest jump in the table). The spread from the lowest tier to the largest is $1,396, with 4-bedroom rentals topping out at $2,625.

Rent by Property Type in Houston Metro

Single-family homes and townhouses led all property types in July 2026, with median rents of $2,218 and $2,121 respectively, sitting $412 (+22.8%) and $315 (+17.4%) above the blended metro median of $1,806. Both types also leased quickly, with single-family homes averaging 42 days on market and townhouses just 40 days, compared to the 68-day metro average. Condos tracked closely to the blended median at $1,836 (+1.7%) and matched the metro average DOM of 68 days. Apartments were the clear outlier, with a median rent of $1,251, a $555 discount (30.7%) below the metro median, and a 127-day average time on market, more than three times the pace of townhouses.

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