Growth in the Greater Houston area continues to move outward as developers focus on building large residential communities away from Houston city limits, including in and around Montgomery County.

The Woodlands ranked sixth on Metrostudy’s list of top new home communities in the housing market research group’s first quester 2018 Executive Housing Market Briefing, released in mid-May. The Woodlands saw 386 home starts in the past year.

Three Montgomery County communities made the top 10 list: The Woodlands, Woodforest north of The Woodlands and Imperial Oaks, located near Rayford Road in Spring. The Cypress area and Sugar Land have also seen hundreds of new homes begin construction in popular communities such as Miramesa and Riverstone.

The communities are ranked by new home starts annually, meaning homes that began construction between March 2017 and March 2018, according to Metrostudy Houston Regional Director Lawrence Dean.  The Greater Houston region is seeing growth moving westward of the metro area, with nine of the 10 top new home communities located west of I-45, according to the report.