As we enter the final months of 2025, building developers are setting their sights on the markets poised to offer the greatest opportunities in 2026. Several key indicators can help identify these hot spots – from the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) which gauges design activity, to the number of projects by sector (data centers, multifamily housing, commercial/industrial, mixed-use, etc.), to on-the-ground factors like bid activity, available real estate, and population or job growth.

Broadly speaking, the more Southern half of the country – or more specifically the Sun Belt region (the southern and southwestern portion of the country, stretching from Florida to California) – continues to dominate in construction momentum, fueled by robust in-migration, policies, and hefty investments in industries like tech and manufacturing.

At the same time, a few unexpected markets are emerging as “diamonds in the rough,” regaining developers’ attention as broader economic conditions shift. Below, we dive into the top 10 United States. Markets that developers should be watching in 2026, backed by data and trends from 2025.

The map illustrates total commercial construction spending by state (left) and per-capita spending (right). The Sun Belt leads on both measures – Texas alone commands nearly $90 billion annually in commercial building (darker shading on left), and fast-growing states like Arizona (top right) see the highest spending per resident (~$6k per capita). In contrast, large states like California, New York, and Illinois (lighter shading) still spend heavily in absolute terms but less so on a per-capita basis. These trends underscore the outsized construction activity in high-growth southern and western markets.

Markets That Building Developers Should Watch

1. Dallas–Fort Worth (North Texas)

Everything is bigger in Texas…and Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) proves it. Ranking as the top real estate market of 2025, DFW anchors Texas’s $89.7 billion in annual commercial construction spending more than any other state. The region delivered over 40,000 new apartment units in 2024, tying with New York for the nation’s highest volume.

DFW is also a data center powerhouse, now the second-largest data center market in the U.S. with 653 MW of capacity and 5 million sq. ft. of space under construction. Affordable land, sub-$0.06/kWh energy, and a business-friendly environment continue to attract cloud giants.

On the industrial front, DFW is seeing a wave of semiconductor, EV battery, and warehouse facilities, benefiting from a 135% nationwide jump in manufacturing construction since 2019. The region’s diversified pipeline -- from urban mixed-use to sprawling logistics parks -- positions it for continued growth into 2026. The South’s American Institute of Architects ABI score reached 50.6 in mid-2025, signaling renewed demand in architectural services. For building developers, DFW is the top market to watch.

2. Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida, remains a top-tier market for building developers, combining momentum with global investment appeal. Ranked among the leading real estate prospects for 2025, the city continues to attract finance, tech, and crypto firms alongside steady population growth. This fuels an active pipeline of multifamily and mixed-use development, including a $3 billion Little River district and a $1 billion transit-oriented project delivering 2,000+ units .

According to the Commercial Observer, despite higher interest rates, developers are adapting, not retreating. Industry leaders note that while financing is tighter, Florida remains a top contender. Traffic congestion itself is viewed as a signal of sustained demand. Miami was also the only U.S. region with rising AIA billings by late 2025.

Key growth sectors include luxury condos, mixed-use towers, and workforce housing initiatives aimed at easing affordability challenges. With its mix of international capital, local demand, and resilience, Miami is firmly positioned as a developer hot spot for 2026.

3. Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas, the U.S.’s fourth-largest city, ranks #3 for 2025 real estate prospects, driven by its diversified economy and high construction volume. The city delivered 25,000+ new apartment units in 2024, second only to DFW in Texas. While multifamily starts may dip 50% in 2025, absorption remains strong—16,600 units leased in 2024, up 70% year-over-year—signaling solid demand for continued residential and mixed-use development.

Where Houston excels is industrial and commercial growth. Texas leads the U.S. in commercial construction spending, with Houston fueling much of it via manufacturing, petrochemical, and warehouse megaprojects. Nearly 40% of U.S. nonresidential spending in 2023–24 went into manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and data centers—a trend reflected locally. Major plastics and LNG plants are rising across the metro, while Houston is emerging as a data center hub, thanks to low-cost power and available land.

The city also offers flexibility with no zoning laws, and public leaders are investing in revitalization—from the Texas A&M Space Institute to East End redevelopment and convention center upgrades. With its mix of scale, industry, and adaptability, Houston remains a top market for building developers entering 2026.

4. Tampa–St. Petersburg, Florida

Tampa–St. Pete has emerged as one of the fastest-growing construction markets in the Southeast, ranking in the top 5 U.S. real estate prospects for 2025. The region’s affordability, job growth, and lifestyle appeal continue to attract new residents, driving demand across sectors. Signature projects like Water Street Tampa and the 50-acre Gas Worx redevelopment (with ~900 units and new office HQ by 2026) showcase the metro’s urban evolution.

Outside the core, growth is broad: healthcare and university expansions, increasing industrial activity, and major infrastructure upgrades—including the I-275 rebuild and Westshore construction boom—are unlocking new development zones. Despite rising insurance costs and climate risks, Tampa remains a magnet for developers, offering opportunities in waterfront condos, suburban data centers, and large-scale residential revitalizations like the 1,850-unit Robles Park overhaul.

With its mix of scale, diversity, and momentum, Tampa is quickly becoming Florida’s new development frontier heading into 2026.

5. Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee, may have cooled from a white-hot streak, but it remains a top-5 real estate market for 2025, thanks to its diverse economy, cultural appeal, and steady population growth (1.5–2% annually). Developers remain bullish despite tighter financing, buoyed by major projects like the $1.2 billion Oracle campus (bringing 8,500 jobs) and a $2.1 billion enclosed NFL stadium, both anchoring the transformative East Bank redevelopment—a 338-acre mixed-use district with transit and green space.

Multifamily remains strong, with stable occupancy and continued infill growth in neighborhoods like The Gulch and Midtown. The city is also seeing robust activity in hospitality, entertainment, and institutional sectors, with ongoing investments from healthcare giants and universities.

Though some worry about overbuilding, Nashville’s long-term infrastructure planning and vibrant demand signal runway for continued growth. For developers, Music City hits a sweet spot of affordability, momentum, and high-impact opportunities heading into 2026.

6. Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida, has evolved from a tourism hub into a well-rounded development market, earning a top 10 spot for 2025 real estate prospects. The metro continues to benefit from strong population growth, job diversification, and rising demand across both hospitality and residential sectors. New resorts and attractions are being built alongside master-planned communities, data centers, warehouses, and urban high-rises.

The city faces the typical Sun Belt challenge: housing supply hasn’t kept up, driving a surge in multifamily construction and single-family development on the fringes. Projects like the Packing District and Lake Nona’s Medical City reflect mixed-use momentum.

On the commercial side, industrial space is booming, with low vacancies along the I-4 corridor and new speculative warehouses breaking ground. Orlando is also gaining traction as a secondary data center market, boosted by tax incentives and fiber connectivity. Add in aerospace expansion tied to the Space Coast and UCF’s growth, and you get a metro ripe with opportunity.

As migration moderates, developers are focusing on quality-of-life projects—walkability, transit, and attainable housing—to sustain momentum. Heading into 2026, Orlando offers developers a diverse, demand-rich market with long-term upside.

7. Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia, ranked #7 for 2025 prospects, blends the economic heft of a major metro with the high-growth appeal of the Sun Belt. With a population near 6 million, its steady growth is driving a surge in industrial, data center, and mixed-use development. The region has led the U.S. in industrial space absorption and falling vacancy rates in late 2024 confirm that millions of new square feet are being quickly leased.

Now a leader in the data center market, Atlanta is expanding fast as developers seek cheaper power and land outside traditional hubs. For example, the $1.3B data center expansion in the South Metro Atlanta area and the film/TV production boom, fueled by Georgia’s tax credits, adds another development vector—each spurring demand for retail, housing, and hotels.

In-town, projects like the BeltLine, the walking trail lined with restaurants and shops that outlines the perimeter of the city, and Midtown tech towers are transforming the urban fabric. Class A office space is holding strong, while office-to-residential conversions and transit-oriented projects are on the rise.

With the South leading in AIA billings, the pipeline for new construction is strong. Heading into 2026, Atlanta offers developers scale, diversity, and opportunity across nearly every asset class.

8. Boston, Massachusetts

Boston, Massachusetts, ranked #8 for 2025 real estate prospects, is re-emerging as a “diamond in the rough” for developers. While Sun Belt markets dominated in recent years, Boston is regaining momentum thanks to its biotech boom, innovation economy, and deep institutional base. Demand for lab and R&D space is surging again, especially in Kendall Square and the Seaport District, where older office buildings are being converted into mixed-use and life sciences hubs.

Though housing remains costly and entitlements can be tricky, there's growing political will to boost supply. Multifamily development is rising, especially along transit lines, and 2024 saw the largest wave of apartment deliveries in decades—yet vacancy stayed low, confirming pent-up demand. Developers are increasingly drawn to these fundamentals.

Post-pandemic, Boston may also be undervalued, with softened land prices and expected interest rate declines luring capital back. With major projects like the Government Center Garage redevelopment and a revitalized Downtown Crossing in motion, Boston in 2026 offers strong opportunities in life sciences, adaptive reuse, and housing—all backed by a resilient, knowledge-based economy.

9. Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah, ranked #9 for 2025 prospects, punches above its weight as a high-growth, pro-development market. With strong in-migration, a young workforce, and a booming tech scene (“Silicon Slopes”), SLC has become a top 10 U.S. data center market. In fact, in 2024, Salt Lake and Phoenix led North America in data center absorption, surpassing even Northern Virginia—a remarkable feat for a mid-sized metro.

For developers, the opportunity spans beyond server farms to include supporting infrastructure and workforce housing, especially as the region offers affordable land, low energy costs, and minimal natural disaster risk.

SLC also leads in homebuilding per capita, with active multifamily and mixed-use developments in downtown and fast-growing suburbs like Lehi and South Jordan. Its role as a regional logistics hub keeps industrial demand high, while infrastructure projects—like the airport overhaul and FrontRunner rail expansion—boost connectivity and drive transit-oriented development.

Though smaller than Dallas or Atlanta, Salt Lake City offers high returns with less competition, making it a smart bet for developers eyeing data centers, logistics, and housing in 2026.

10. Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona, ranked #10 for 2025 prospects, continues its Sun Belt boom, driven by data center growth, high-tech manufacturing, and steady in-migration. Though growth has moderated since the early 2020s, Phoenix remains the #2 data center market in the U.S., with 1.8 GW under construction and more planned, especially in Mesa and Goodyear. Cloud giants like Google and Microsoft are building massive campuses, reinforcing its appeal despite rising power constraints.

Phoenix also leads in manufacturing and construction, fueled by CHIPS Act investments. The $40B TSMC fab has spawned a web of supporting facilities in what’s now dubbed the “Silicon Desert.” This wave of high-tech development is generating demand for worker housing and mixed-use commercial projects in underbuilt areas.

In housing, the metro has shifted from underbuilt to temporarily oversupplied, though permits for single-family and infill apartments remain strong across suburbs like Gilbert and Peoria. Water restrictions are prompting denser, smarter growth, especially in urban nodes like Tempe Town Lake and Scottsdale.

Despite constraints, Phoenix’s fundamentals—affordability, job growth, and infrastructure—remain strong, positioning it as a leading market for data centers, housing, and high-tech industry development heading into 2026.

Building Developers and the AI Advantage

Across all these markets, one underlying theme is the growing complexity and scale of projects – and this is where AI is quietly transforming how development gets done.

From optimizing building designs to analyzing vast datasets of demographic and market trends, AI-powered tools are helping developers make smarter decisions faster. For instance, the surging demand for data centers (as noted in markets like Dallas and Phoenix) itself is partly driven by AI and cloud computing needs.

On the development side, firms are leveraging AI in virtual design and construction to reduce costly errors (rework can account for nearly 30% of construction costs without such tech).

As developers target these top markets for 2026, partnering with an innovator in this space can be game-changing. cove, a full-service, AI-powered architecture firm, exemplifies how embracing technology yields an edge.

By harnessing AI for rapid site analysis, generative design options, and efficient project management, cove helps developers break into markets faster, more efficiently, and with greater confidence.

Whether it’s evaluating which neighborhood in Miami has the most untapped potential or value-engineering a high-rise in Nashville to meet budget and code, cove’s data-driven approach streamlines the process. In a competitive landscape, building developers who tap into AI-driven expertise can navigate new markets with agility – turning the massive opportunities in these top 10 cities into successful projects on the ground. With the right tools and partners, 2026 could be a banner year for developers ready to capitalize on the trends shaping America’s construction horizon.

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Sources: The analysis above is supported by industry data and forecasts, including the American Institute of Architects’ Billings Index reports, construction spending analyses, real estate trend reports such as PwC/ULI’s Emerging Trends 2025, and various news and research pieces that shed light on project pipelines and economic drivers in each metro. Notable references have been cited throughout the text for further reading.