COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — College Station housing market prepares for SpaceX Terafab workers and continued growth
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The SpaceX Terafab project is adding a new layer of housing demand to College Station — a market that is already navigating the pressures of a large university population and rapid development.
The city says it has enough housing to absorb the influx of contractors and workers expected to arrive for the Terafab project, but some residents are not convinced.
"The current Bryan College Station housing market, there is a lot of inventory right now. We consider it a very soft, soft market," Justin Lopez, a local realtor, said.
In 2025, Texas A&M capped undergraduate enrollment to give the city time to catch up with housing demand. According to Anthony Armstrong, the Community Development Services Director, that pause helped spur private development.
"Kind of gave the private sector some time to catch up. You've seen all the high rises in Northgate, obviously a big boom there," Armstrong said.
With the Terafab project now approved, thousands of additional people could be looking for homes in the area. Armstrong said the scale of that growth is still manageable compared to what the city has handled before.
"Even if all those population came and stayed here, it's still less growth than we're, I would say we're used to when A&M was full bore, full steam ahead," Armstrong said.
Not everyone shares that confidence. Local resident Caroline Strong said she is worried about what the project will mean for home values.
"With the Terra Fab coming in, I do have concerns that there's going to be lots of people who are looking to buy homes and the home values are going to go up," Strong said.
Lopez said the Terafab effect is already being felt. He recently placed a contractor working on the facility into a local home.
"We have been contacted by somebody who is working and starting construction of the Terafab facility. We've leased a house to them. Him and his family is moving into our area and we're happy to have them," Lopez said.
For younger residents, the concern is affordability. Shelby Behm, a local resident, said the market remains out of reach for many people her age.
"I do believe that the housing market, even though it's getting better, it's still a little unattainable for some, for most young people my age," Behm said.
Strong echoed that concern.
"And people like us just have a lot less options when we're actually interested and ready to purchase," Strong said.
Lopez said the Terafab project will have a long-term impact on the Bryan/College Station housing market.
"We are looking at many years of impact from the housing market, from the Grimes County facility, yeah," Lopez said.
The city says 9 more high rises are planned for student housing, and more than 5,000 single-family homes are expected to be built over the next two years to meet the growth.
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