Dallas is still building big, but U.S. apartment deliveries fell 41%

Dallas-Fort Worth is having a rare 2026: it’s one of the few places where big-box warehouses are still coming online fast, even as the nation’s apartment completion wave cools. For operators, that overlap matters less as a real-estate trivia fact and more as a warning light for shared constraints, the same electrical rooms, the same concrete crews, the same municipal inspection calendars and, often, the same inbound worker commutes.

Through June, U.S. developers completed 203,073 multifamily units across 994 properties, down 41.3% from the first half of 2025, according to Yardi Matrix data published Aug. 25 by Multi-Housing News. Over the same period, developers delivered 135.5 million square feet of industrial space across 616 properties nationwide, down 12% year over year, based on Yardi Matrix data reported Aug. 21 by Commercial Property Executive.

Those national numbers point the same direction, a moderation after a multi-year run. But the market-by-market detail, where projects are still delivering and where new starts are being dialed back, is what should be feeding site selection, facilities budgets, and labor planning for 2027.

The completion slowdown is real, but it is clustering in fewer metros

Multi-Housing News reported that the top 10 apartment markets delivered 75,604 units in H1 2026, 37.2% of all U.S. completions. That concentration is useful for national operators because it keeps service and supplier coverage dense even when the national total is dropping. If a vendor network can stay strong in those 10 metros, it still touches more than a third of new inventory coming online.

Industrial completions were even more top-heavy. Commercial Property Executive put the top 10 industrial markets at 59.8 million square feet across 255 properties, roughly 44% of all U.S. industrial deliveries in H1 2026. And while the U.S. total fell, the combined volume of those top 10 markets rose 20% year over year, with six markets posting gains, according to Commercial Property Executive.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the overlap market operators should model

In multifamily, Dallas held the No. 1 spot with 12,108 units completed across 53 properties in H1 2026, even after a 39.3% year-over-year drop from 19,934 units, according to Multi-Housing News. The market’s pipeline stayed large: 53,165 units under construction as of June, with Lifestyle apartments comprising 86.5% of those underway units, Multi-Housing News reported. Starts in Dallas fell 43.1% to 8,340 units, based on the same Yardi Matrix dataset cited by the publication.

In industrial, Dallas-Fort Worth led the U.S. with 14.9 million square feet of completions across 58 properties, up 28% year over year, representing about 11% of all U.S. industrial completions in the first half, according to Commercial Property Executive. The Metroplex also had 33.7 million square feet under construction. Starts in H1 2026 totaled 14.1 million square feet, slightly above 13.4 million a year earlier, Commercial Property Executive reported.

Commercial Property Executive highlighted one of the largest projects delivered so far this year: Building 4 at NorthPoint Development’s Intermodal Logistics Center in Fort Worth, a roughly 1.3 million-square-foot facility that is fully leased by Lennox International. For occupiers, “fully leased at delivery” is the clue, competition for modern space can remain intense in submarkets that have the right intermodal access and power-ready sites, even when national vacancy narratives feel calmer.

Phoenix and Houston show why starts matter more than completions

Phoenix appears in both rankings, but with opposite short-term signals. On the apartment side, Phoenix delivered 11,350 units in H1 2026 across 47 properties, down 12.5% year over year, and expanded inventory by 2.7%, according to Multi-Housing News. On the industrial side, Phoenix delivered 4.5 million square feet across 19 properties, down 61% year over year, while starts more than doubled to 15.2 million square feet, according to Commercial Property Executive. That spread suggests timing, not a simple stop, with deliveries temporarily lagging what is being kicked off now.

Houston, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 for industrial deliveries with 12.9 million square feet across 80 properties in H1 2026, up 50% year over year, according to Commercial Property Executive. However, new starts totaled 8.7 million square feet, down from 11.2 million in the prior year, pointing to a more measured pace ahead. Commercial Property Executive cited Triten Real Estate Partners’ completion of the nearly 400,000-square-foot Kenswick at 1960 in Humble, Texas, a two-building distribution center designed to accommodate 5 acres of secured outdoor storage.

For procurement and facilities leaders, starts are the better leading indicator for labor availability, permitting backlogs, and when tenant improvement vendors will be at their busiest. Deliveries are what just happened. Starts hint at what will be contested next.

Northern New Jersey is still getting capital for large, transit-adjacent towers

While Sun Belt metros still dominate apartment delivery counts, Multi-Housing News noted that New York and Northern New Jersey “stand apart,” pairing resilient deliveries with accelerating starts and stronger Northeast fundamentals. Northern New Jersey also registered the smallest year-over-year decline in completions among the ranked markets, according to the same Multi-Housing News report.

That broader trend is reflected in one recent deal. According to Multi-Housing News reporting on Aug. 27, a joint venture between Urby and Rockpoint secured a $277 million construction loan tied to 201 Hudson, by Urby, a 748-unit development in Jersey City’s Paulus Hook neighborhood. Truist provided the note, and Newmark arranged the transaction. Multi-Housing News described the property as a 69-story, 528,000-square-foot tower with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, next to the Exchange Place transit cluster and a short trip from Lower Manhattan.

Where this lands in 2027 planning for occupiers and suppliers

• For workforce and HR teams in DFW: update hiring and shift models using both pipelines, 53,165 multifamily units under construction in Dallas (Multi-Housing News) and 33.7 million square feet of industrial underway in DFW (Commercial Property Executive). The competition is for the same electricians, concrete and inspection slots.
• For corporate real estate and network planning: treat the top-10 concentration as a serviceability map. The top 10 apartment markets delivered 37.2% of U.S. units and the top 10 industrial markets delivered about 44% of U.S. square footage in H1 2026 (Multi-Housing News; Commercial Property Executive).
• For operators considering Northeast footprints or commuter-heavy labor pools: pressure-test assumptions using Northern New Jersey’s continued activity and the scale of the 201 Hudson financing, 748 units backed by a $277 million construction loan (Multi-Housing News). Confirm where employees will realistically live while large towers are still in build mode, not just after they stabilize.
• For suppliers bidding TI, MEP and building-services work: ask GC and developer counterparts about starts, not just deliveries. Phoenix’s industrial starts more than doubled to 15.2 million square feet even as deliveries fell 61% (Commercial Property Executive), a classic setup for a busy 2027-2028 back half.