Texas built more apartments over the past four years than almost anywhere in the country has in modern memory. That success is exactly why permits there are falling now.
Nationally, multifamily permitting activity through the first months of 2026 shows a clear geographic split. California, the top multifamily-permitting state, recorded a 105.4% year-over-year increase in permits issued in the first quarter, according to the National Association of Home Builders. New York, ranking third nationally, saw permits rise 154.8% over the same period. Texas, the second-highest permitting state by volume, posted a 2.9% decline. That pattern held through the first five months of the year, with Texas multifamily permits down 23.3% year-over-year in the January-through-May reading NAHB tracked.
The shift shows up sharply at the metro level, too. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metro division recorded 15,735 multifamily units permitted in the year ending March 2026, nearly double the 8,138 units permitted the year before, according to RealPage Analytics data reported by CRE Daily. That put Los Angeles at the top of the national permitting rankings, a position it hasn’t held in years…