It seems that San Antonio will keep building as long as the people keep moving here. A new apartment construction analysis finds that San Antonio has the No. 7 highest apartment construction rate out of all U.S. cities this year, and it ranks 17th out of all U.S. metropolitan areas.
RentCafe’s report, “New Apartment Construction Tops 500K Units This Year, More Than Half in 1 Region,” examined apartment building data across 369 U.S. metro areas, specifically buildings containing 50 or more units.
More than 500,000 apartments are in development throughout the country this year, the report found, though that’s significantly lower than the 640,000-plus units that were completed nationwide by the end of 2024.
A total of 5,921 new apartments are expected to be built in San Antonio from the beginning of the year to the end of December 2025. That’s 1,137 fewer units than what the city was building in 2024, though the slower development isn’t stopping San Antonio’s ever-growing population.
The report says more than half of all incoming apartments in 2025 are being built in the South, where five major Texas cities are leading the building boom: Austin (No. 1), Houston (No. 3), San Antonio (No. 7), Dallas (No. 9), and Fort Worth (No. 20).
RentCafe attributes Texas’ apartment building boom to the state’s reputation as a “migration magnet” with excellent job and economic growth rates.
“Southern metros typically offer streamlined approval processes and fewer regulatory hurdles, making it easier to bring multifamily projects to market,” said Yardi Matrix senior analyst and manager of business intelligence Doug Ressler. “At the same time, elevated home prices and a shortage of attainable for-sale housing are pushing more residents toward rentals. For many households, single-family (housing) ownership is simply out of reach — fueling demand for rental housing.”
The six other U.S. cities that make up the top 10 places building the most new apartments in 2025 include Charlotte, North Carolina (No. 2); Brooklyn, New York (No. 4); Phoenix, Arizona (No. 5); Atlanta, Georgia (No. 6); Denver, Colorado (No. 8), and Nashville, Tennessee (No. 10).
Where San Antonio lands among the top 20 U.S. metros for apartment construction
A separate RentCafe ranking of the top 20 U.S. metropolitan areas (not cities) building the most new apartments in 2025 places Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston among the top 10, leaving San Antonio behind as No. 17.
“Although the ranking comes in the wake of a 28.7 percent year-over-year decline in deliveries, a total of 8,070 new units are nevertheless projected across the [San Antonio] metro,” the report said.
San Antonio proper is producing a majority of those finished apartments, while New Braunfels has the second-highest rate of new apartment construction in the metro, with 946 units expected to be developed by the end of 2025. Seguin makes up the rest with 400 new apartments in development this year.
Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth has the second-highest number of new units being built in the U.S. this year, totaling 28,958 apartments. However, RentCafe says that’s a 22.4 percent drop in completed apartments as compared to 2024.
“Even with this slowdown, the Metroplex remains one of the top places in the country for new apartment completions,” the report’s author wrote. “As such, this dip in construction may just be the market taking a breather after a period of intense growth. But, with so many people still moving to the area, the demand for housing remains high.”
The top 20 U.S. metro areas building the most new apartments in 2025 are:
- No. 1 – New York, New York
- No. 2 – Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
- No. 3 – Austin, Texas
- No. 4 – Phoenix, Arizona
- No. 5 –Atlanta, Georgia
- No. 6 – Charlotte, North Carolina
- No. 7 – San Antonio, Texas
- No. 8 – Houston, Texas
- No. 9 – Washington, D.C.
- No. 10 – Denver, Colorado