October 2026 Board Update: 140 New Houston Communities, Checked for Fees, Water and Flood Zone

If you’re shopping for a new apartment in Houston this fall, here’s what the board looked like on Oct 25, 2026. We started from an export of 141 communities built from 2024 to 2026 and tracked 140 of them. Then we checked every one for electric provider, water district, FEMA zone and school district, and surveyed required fees at 11 market-rate buildings.

This post is a dated snapshot. Live prices and counts on the New Build Board update every morning, so some numbers here will move.

What’s on the board, and what we left out

We track ground-up new construction only: first move-ins from 2024 to 2027, in pre-leasing, lease-up or the first 24 months. That gave us 140 communities.

One building came off for good. The Watt is an office conversion (Bisnow; Greystar), so it doesn’t meet our ground-up rule. Two buildings that people sometimes ask about are on the board and live: Ohm and The Aurea.

Ohm was built in 2024 and sold in August 2026; its manager is Spirit Management Services. A similar name isn’t an affiliation with our brokerage, Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC.

Electric: who serves each address

Electric setup	Buildings (of 140)
CenterPoint Energy area, you pick a plan on Power to Choose	123
Entergy Texas, no plan choice	10
Mid-South Electric Cooperative	1
Electric included or billed by the property	5
Unresolved	1

CenterPoint’s delivery charge was $4.90 a month plus 6.5333 cents per kWh (PUCT, Oct 2026). The Entergy addresses are in Conroe, Willis and Dayton, and likely Porter. The Mid-South building is The Terrace at Pine Lake Cove. The one we haven’t resolved yet is 1 Riva Row. Our guide to electric at a new apartment explains what each setup means for your bill.

Water: city, district, or still confirming

Water source	Buildings (of 140)
District (MUD or similar), usually billed by the property	67
City system	63
Not found yet [confirm]	9
Conflicting records	1

That’s almost half the board on district water. Billing follows 16 TAC Chapter 24, by ratio or submeter. For the 9 we couldn’t find and the 1 conflict, we’re calling the properties and districts. Our guide on MUD water bills walks through what to ask.

The question we ask every building

What was last year’s average water bill for this unit size, and how do you bill it? For newer buildings, we ask for the average since opening.

Flood zones: facts for every address

FEMA zone	Buildings (of 140)
Zone X	128
Shaded Zone X (0.2% or levee)	9
Zone AE	3

The three Zone AE buildings are Asher Towne Lake, Sycamore Heights and The Cove at GYB. LOMR-F letters are pending at the first two, and The Cove at GYB has an 11-foot base flood elevation. None of the three is inside the City of Houston. We list zones as facts, never verdicts. See our guide on FEMA flood zones for what each zone means.

Fees: what 11 buildings charge each month

We used fee calculators at 11 market-rate board buildings. Required monthly fees ran $77.62 to $158.06, with a median of $98, or about $1,176 a year. These are charges you can’t opt out of, like valet trash, resident benefit packages and tech packages.

Fees matter because the special doesn’t touch them. 8 weeks free on a $1,400 apartment is about $2,585. Spread over 12 months, you pay about $1,185. Add our $98 median fees and it’s $1,283, and year two starts at $1,498 if the base holds. Our guide on required fees lists what each one usually covers.

Specials: the board median

The board median special was 8.0 weeks across 128 market-rate communities on Oct 25, 2026, and 52% were at 8 weeks or more. At that median, year two jumps about 18% because renewal is priced from base. The live median updates each morning on the board.

For context, 55% of Houston-area units had a concession in Q2 2026 (Transwestern), and deliveries fall from about 13,000 in 2026 to about 5,600 in 2027 (Northmarq).

What we’re still confirming

We’d rather say what’s open than guess. As of this update, we’re still working on:

• The Aurea’s income program, plus age and income rules at Campanile, Lofts at Katy Ranch and LightHaven
• Electric at 1 Riva Row, Arbor Rose Porter, The Sylvan and Bloom
• Water at the 10 buildings marked [confirm] or in conflict
• LOMR-F letters for Sycamore Heights and Asher Towne Lake, and The Cove’s elevation certificate
• §92.0135 flood notices and generator answers from every community
• Confirmed Opening Soon dates

When any of these change, the card updates with a new date. If we got something wrong, we fix it within one business day and log it on our corrections page.

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