Cameron's new work is sitework. Hidalgo housing waits on nine months of supply.

SAMPLE ISSUE. NOT A LIVE WEEK.

The new Cameron permit is grading and ponds. A Hidalgo spec start this month still sells into a long inventory and a higher 30-year.

Cameron permitted sitework on the Fluidstack tract, and Hidalgo’s unsold houses still have to find a buyer before the next start makes sense. A spec poured or framed in the next two months meets that inventory and a 30-year that moved up. The jobs with a date are paving, cold storage, and tenant improvements, which is a different crew list than a housing start. A housing crew does not come out of this week’s filings.

Permits and starts by city

A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing over about $50,000 is not a house count, and McAllen did not post new single-family permits online this week. The board that did print is commercial, dated, and mostly already assigned a start.

Target T2224, at 3600 Nolana Ave, registered a mill-and-overlay on Sep 8. Filing TABS2027000469 is $898,612 on 219,481 square feet, covering asphalt mill and overlay, truck-court repairs, accessible stalls, and restriping. The start is filed for Sep 14 and completion is printed for Oct 9, so the paving and site concrete sit inside this month.

Re Pilates is a $205,400 studio of 1,612 square feet at 4208 Tres Lagos Blvd, filing TABS2027000799, registered Sep 11, with a start filed for Sep 21 and completion on Dec 20. It is a tenant job, not a shell.

Two refrigerated shells on Honduras have not broken ground, and that is the largest dated pair on the Hidalgo board. 7 Palmas is $14.0 million and 58,308 square feet at 5501 Honduras, filing TABS2026029289, with a printed start of Sep 28 in the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal on Sep 5. Amore Produce is $8.0 million and 40,711 square feet at 5401 Honduras, with a start filed for Oct 1 in the same paper on Sep 9. So what for a builder: lock refrigeration and dock trades for both addresses before Oct 1.

Bridge interiors at 1023 S. International Blvd is three state filings totaling $1.925 million, with a start of Oct 1, reported by the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal on Sep 7. That is interior work on an existing building, not a new warehouse shell.

Mission’s Ross Dress for Less number 2940 is a tenant improvement of $850,000 at 301 E Expressway 83, filing TABS2027000765, start filed Oct 1 and complete May 1, 2027. The 263,962 square-foot field is the shopping center, and about $3 a square foot is a tenant improvement, not a ground-up box. Mission’s own permit list did not show the Ross job this week, so the state filing is the record. Retail millwork and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing run about seven months on that paper.

Edinburg posted no new commercial filing, and it did not publish a single-family table. The Lopez Unit dorm expansion, about $44.0 million under filing TABS2026024767, is still registered. Planning and zoning met on Sep 10 with minutes still unpublished. Year-to-date sales-tax allocation is down 2.58 percent in the Texas Comptroller’s September allocation, which is a retail signal, not a jail signal. A retail crew does not come off that dorm.

Pharr posted no new commercial filing. Universal Metal, at $8.0 million with a start filed for Oct 1, is still standing on the prior record. Camellia Court, 80 units at 920 W. Villegas, is in inspection with move-in by at least October, according to KRGV on Sep 8, and the dollar is unknown because this is a finish, not a new permit. The second-span opening is printed for Nov 12 by Texas Border Business, so industrial bids that haul across that span need float through that date.

San Juan’s Ruleta warehouse is $200,000 and 5,000 square feet under filing TABS2027000679, with a start filed for Sep 14. Donna’s bridge board approved $110,600 in cameras, while the $62 million southbound truck expansion is still slated for October dirt, pending Mexico-side timing, in the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal on Sep 9. The camera vote is this week’s paper. The expansion is still a schedule, not a shovel.

Hidalgo housing starts are not these filings. Census permits for the McAllen metro show 506 private units authorized in July 2026, down 7.2 percent from a year earlier, in the FRED series MCAL548BPPRIV, which ends Jul 1. That count sits behind the inventory in the money section, not ahead of it.

Cameron is the contrast this week. County Judge Eddie Treviño Junior said the Fluidstack worksite permit, issued Sep 10, covers land east of FM 509 and west of FM 106, which means clearing, grading, utilities, streets, and ponds. Buildings need later permits. Headlines that say broken ground go past the county quote. Company figures are a $4 billion first phase, more than 1,000 acres, and more than 2,500 construction jobs, with no county incentives. At a Harlingen meeting on Sep 2, Fluidstack cited about 50,000 gallons a day of potable water during construction, later about 7,000. The contractor is unknown and there is no vertical filing. Graders, utility, storm, and electrical are the bid if you can get on the list. Framers do not move off this permit.

Drainage District 6, at $11 million, has machines on the levee north of Santa Rosa. Four crossings, two pumps each, the first two in six months, were reported by KRGV on Sep 9, paid in part by a $25 million bond. That is dirt already moving, which the Fluidstack permit is not.

Harlingen’s Ed Carey tenant improvement is $250,000 under filing TABS2027000467, with a start filed for Sep 15. East Point Energy’s 100-megawatt battery plant is operating at Grimes and Loop 499, according to MyRGV on Sep 9. Proposed inspection fees are not adopted. August showed 38 single-family permits and 219 year to date, and that PDF is the hard Cameron housing count. Brownsville did not post a matching single-family table online this week.

Brownsville’s downtown signal ramps are $1.9 million with a start filed for Jan 1, 2027. A warehouse at $500,000 at 2995 N Indiana Ave has a start filed for Sep 15. Sally Beauty is about $297,000 in October. The five-year capital program is about $157.8 million through fiscal 2031. The Public Safety Complex is $75 million, with substantial completion in fall 2028, from Alan Guard on Sep 11. Streets, drainage, and a 2028 shell are the public book. Price Old Highway 77 and Old Alice haul time into 2027 if that complex is on your bid list.

Texas A&M TEEX, at $30 million, finishes in December 2026. Saronic has no groundbreaking. It is still selected, and it has not started. Hiring runs from 789 in 2027 to 10,000 by 2035, on a $3.2 billion yard, from the Port of Brownsville on Jul 16. Starbase has no single-family filings. About 445 acres near the port were deannexed, according to the Texas Tribune on Aug 31, and that acreage is not city-zoned work. The north-side tax-increment zone, about 1,000 acres, has a first year of 2027, from KRGV on Sep 10.

If Fluidstack never receives a building permit, Cameron 2026 work is the drainage district, the 2027 ramps, Harlingen’s 38, and the public capital program. That is the honest book until a vertical filing exists.

Materials basket

Diesel moved. August materials inflation did not. These are store-shelf and national prints, and they are not a bid. Plant concrete prices are not in this issue.

The walk-in stud is McCoy’s Edinburg at $3.49 on Sep 11. Lowe’s shelf that morning is sheathing, block, rebar, and drywall, with no 2x4 on that shelf. Cap haul surcharges to the EIA print. The next release was scheduled for Sep 15. Copper at $6.47 is not a cancelled 2027 duty. Reuters on Sep 10 cited two unnamed sources for that reading, and the duty question stays open. USG joint treatment is effective Sep 14. National Gypsum finishing hits Oct 5, with no percent on the letter. Canadian OSB, plywood, and cement still pay 50 percent since Aug 22. Softwood lumber is outside that duty. Light-gauge letters run Sep 28, Oct 1, and Oct 5.

So what for a builder: reset haul tickets to $5.754 until Sep 15, get the USG list if pails ship after Sep 14, and keep a 5 to 8 percent contingency on concrete-heavy work. Hidalgo cement is still the Mexican lane.

Labor and capacity

No verified worksite operation at a named Hidalgo or Cameron construction site landed this week. The last verified local mechanism remains dawn no-shows at Port Isabel on or before Jul 28, which is old enough to label and too specific to drop.

The 287(g) workbook, republished Sep 8, moved from 2,462 national agreements to 2,466. Texas is still 521. Primera is still absent from that workbook, and that absence is not a cancelled agreement. Magistrate Judge Juan F. Alanis recommended on Sep 10 that Spencer Construction and Royal Concrete stay idle on the Santa Ana and Alamo Lateral A stretch. A recommendation is not a signed order, so those crews are not free on that paper.

Build time, held, is 9-11 months. The entry wage, restated Aug 13, is $15 an hour. The Dallas Fed June dashboard, stale about 74 days, puts McAllen average hourly earnings at $22.69, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier. Crews are not scarce on the official print, and wages are hot. If sitework pulls electricians, bid labor as available and expensive. Framers do not move first.

Money and absorption

Months of supply are the demand signal, and they are stale on purpose until a newer metro print exists.

Brownsville-Harlingen has the healthier inventory. The Texas Real Estate Research Center last printed 5.4 months statewide for June 2026, and it did not publish metro months, so the 9.1 and the 5.8 stay the local prints. The 30-year in this week’s series is 6.76 percent as of Sep 10, up from 6.71 percent in the week ending Sep 3, and the Aug 6 print in the same series was 6.69 percent.

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission unemployment was 6.8 percent in July 2026, prior month 7.0 percent, from FRED as of Jul 1, not seasonally adjusted, and stale at 74 days. Brownsville-Harlingen was 7.0 percent, prior 7.3 percent. Texas was 4.5 percent in July. The United States was 4.1 percent in August.

So what for a builder: a Hidalgo house poured or framed in the next 60 days is a buyer’s-market job against 9.1 months and a 6.76 percent 30-year. McAllen values are flat from a year earlier, and the 506 July authorizations sit behind that inventory.

Projects: verified or waiting

Verified work has a filing date you can put a crew against. Target Nolana starts Sep 14. Re Pilates starts Sep 21. Amore and 7 Palmas are registered cold storage and still not in the ground. Ross, Ruleta, Ed Carey, and the Indiana Avenue warehouse are September or October starts on the filing. Fluidstack has a worksite permit dated Sep 10 and no building filing. Drainage District 6 has machines on the levee. Harlingen’s 38 is an issued-permit count, not a project name.

Waiting work is the list you do not staff yet. Saronic is selected and still pre-dirt. Donna’s $62 million expansion is slated for October dirt. The tax-increment zone has a first year of 2027. A July 28 Mission photo still has no state filing. A small McAllen annex groundbreaking in mid-September had no dollar, and it stays off this list until a filing shows a cost.

One move this week

Leave unsold Hidalgo spec unstarted this quarter. Bid Fluidstack site civil and the dated Hidalgo cold storage and tenant improvements, and reset diesel to $5.754. A spec poured in October sells into summer 2027 against a 9-11 month build. The 2,500 construction jobs stay a company claim until building permits exist.

Calls and grades

As of this issue, Sep 13, OPEN means the date has not arrived, HIT means the record matched the call, MISS means it did not, and PUSH means the date passed and the record neither confirmed nor killed the call.

Section 338 has been in force since Aug 22, day 22 as of Sep 12. The diesel hold was open when this issue closed, and its test was the Sep 15 EIA release.

Sources

The window is Monday, Sep 7, through Saturday, Sep 12. The coverage gap is Thursday, Sep 10, for permits, news, and labor. Sunday figures are the Sep 13 stats print. McAllen and Brownsville did not post a single-family table online. Harlingen’s August PDF is 38 permits and 219 year to date.

State filing pages are named above. Redfin is as of May 31. Zillow Research is Jul 31. Freddie Mac is the week ending Sep 10, with the Aug 6 and Sep 3 prints from the weekly series. FRED unemployment covers both metros as of Jul 1. FRED producer prices are Aug 1. Census permits via FRED are July. EIA diesel is the week ending Sep 7, released Sep 9. McCoy’s Edinburg and the Lowe’s shelf are Sep 11. Trading Economics is Sep 11. RSMeans is Jul 13, and it is stale.

Also dated above: Rio Grande Valley Business Journal, KRGV, MyRGV, Texas Border Business, Texas Tribune, Texas Comptroller, Dallas Fed for June, Port of Brownsville on Jul 16, and the Cameron County Judge on the worksite permit. Fluidstack water figures are from the Harlingen meeting on Sep 2.

Dated prints are not a formal estimate.