Princeton's Growth Pause Ended a Year Ago. The Permit Count Says It Never Really Paused.

In August 2026, a single-family home sold in Princeton took 75 days on average to close on the market, up from 64 days in August 2025. The town had 6.1 months of inventory, up from 5.3 a year earlier. Median price per square foot fell from $169.59 to $153.65. Plano, a few exits west, sat at 3.2 months of inventory that same month.

Those numbers are odd for a city that spent most of 2025 under a moratorium on residential development. The explanation is in the City of Princeton's own monthly permit reports. New single-family permits kept coming through the pause. Once it ended, they sped up. A homeowner listing a resale in Princeton this fall is competing with that pipeline.

The pause stopped new approvals. Approved lots kept building.

Princeton first imposed a 120-day residential moratorium on September 23, 2024, and cited pressure on water, sewer, roads, emergency services and utilities. Council extended it 180 days in January 2025. According to the Princeton Herald, council then voted 6–0 in June 2025 to extend it another 160 days, through November 30, 2025. In November 2025, council passed an ordinance ending it on that date.

The pause suspended new permits and approvals for subdivision, platting, construction and reconstruction, both inside the city and in its extraterritorial jurisdiction. It did not reach projects already in motion. KERA reported that city staff said halting projects approved before the moratorium would violate state law.

So the subdivisions that already had approvals kept pulling permits. The table totals the city's monthly count of new single-family construction permits by quarter.

The moratorium's busiest quarter brought 468 permits. The first quarter after it ended topped that, and the third quarter of 2026 beat it by 130. From January through September 2025, with the pause in effect the whole time, Princeton issued 1,276 new single-family permits. Over the same nine months of 2026 it issued 1,388, about 9% more. The city's August 2026 report lists only August issue dates and is stamped September 1. It shows 268 permits, the highest single month in the two-year series. September's report added 200.

Each of those permits marks a house started, not one finished, and at 200 or more a month, late-summer permits become finished homes listed for sale next year.

Some land left the city's rules entirely

The second leak in the moratorium came from a 2023 state law. S.B. 2038 took effect September 1, 2023. It lets landowners petition to be released from a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, and a qualifying area has to be released.

A WFAA review of city documents found that Princeton averaged 3.33 opt-out requests a month after the law took effect. The rate rose 36% once the moratorium reached the council agenda. Some tracts were under half an acre. Others covered more than 200 acres. Land that leaves the ETJ can be built under county rules, which WFAA described as far less stringent. WFAA also reported that one accepted request was handwritten on a sheet of printer paper.

"We get requests every single meeting from people that leave the ETJs because that's a way to get around the regulations that we have here," Mayor Eugene Escobar Jr. told WFAA.

So the pause had two gaps. Approved subdivisions inside the boundary kept going, and some land at the edge left the city's jurisdiction altogether.

A second pause is legally off the table until late 2027

The next question is whether Princeton could pause growth again if supply keeps rising. State law now limits that. H.B. 2559, effective September 1, 2025, amended Local Government Code Section 212.1362. A moratorium under that subchapter now expires after 90 days unless council extends it with written findings. The total length is capped at 180 days. A city cannot adopt a new moratorium before the second anniversary of the previous one's expiration if it addresses the same harm, the same type of property or the same area. The Princeton Herald reported in May 2026 that this means a two-year wait for Princeton. Counting two years from the last pause's November 30, 2025 expiration puts the end of that window at November 30, 2027.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure work behind the original pause is still at the planning stage. At an August 24 work session, council heard a 2026 update to the city's 2017 Water and Wastewater Master Plan, with projections through 2035 and buildout. The Princeton Herald reported that the session was discussion only and no formal action was taken.

Demand has not stopped either. The Census Bureau estimated that Princeton grew 18.1% between July 2024 and July 2025, to 43,524 residents. That is slower than the prior year's 30.6%, but it still ranked third in the nation by percentage among cities with more than 20,000 residents.

How the supply shows up in a resale

All of this matters most for an existing home listed on the open market. Here is Princeton's single-family row from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems MLS summary for August 2026, produced by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M:

• Closed sales: 32 in August 2026, down from 45 in August 2025
• Median price: $303,750, down from $316,000
• Median price per square foot: $153.65, down from $169.59
• Sold-to-list ratio: 93.9%, compared with 94.0%
• Active listings: 167, up from 157
• Days on market: 75, up from 64
• Months of inventory: 6.1, up from 5.3

Price per square foot fell about 9%, more than twice the drop in the median. In other words, buyers in August 2026 got more house per dollar than buyers did a year earlier. Sellers gave up about six percent off list on average, homes sat longer, and fewer of them closed. Statewide, Texas had 5.3 months of inventory and 65 days on market in August 2026. Princeton was looser than the state on both measures.

Where the permits are landing

The September 2026 permit report lists new-home permits in phases of these subdivisions. The builders named are the ones the builders themselves list for each community:

1. Eastridge, in Phase 1 South, 1A, 6 and 7, with Meritage Homes and Trophy Signature Homes
2. Windmore 3, with Meritage Homes and Trophy Signature Homes
3. Clearhaven Phase 1, with Centex
4. Southridge phases 3 and 4, with Meritage Homes and Trophy Signature Homes
5. Whitewing Trails, with Pulte, Beazer, D.R. Horton, Lennar and Trophy Signature Homes
6. Winchester, where the August permit records show Phase 11 activity and D.R. Horton sells as Winchester Crossing

Whitewing Trails alone has five national builders selling at once. A resale a few streets from an active model home is being compared with a new build on the same buyer's tour. The builder controls its own pricing and can adjust it on the next phase, and the resale seller cannot.

What it means on each side of the table

For a buyer weighing Princeton against tighter markets like Plano, the August 2026 figures point to more choice, more time to decide and more room to negotiate than the town's growth headlines suggest. With new phases opening across several subdivisions, that is likely to hold for a while. Because the next legal window for a moratorium is more than a year away, there is no near-term policy that would cut off new supply.

For a seller, the comparison set is wider than the other resales in the neighborhood. It includes the builder inventory nearby, at its current price and with its warranty. Pricing a Princeton resale in fall 2026 starts with which phases are actively permitting within a short drive of the home and what those builders are asking.

FAQ

Did Princeton's moratorium stop homes from being built? No. It suspended new residential approvals, but projects approved before it continued. The city issued 1,276 new single-family permits from January through September 2025 while the pause was in effect.

Can Princeton impose another moratorium soon? Under H.B. 2559, a city cannot adopt a repeat moratorium addressing the same harm, property type or area before the second anniversary of the prior one's expiration. Counted from Princeton's November 30, 2025 expiration, that anniversary is November 30, 2027.

Is the newest Princeton market data current? The August 2026 NTREIS figures, published in September 2026, are the latest city-level numbers. The city's permit reports run through September 2026.

This post is general market information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm how any state or local rule applies to a specific property with the appropriate professional.

If you are pricing a Princeton home against the builder phases around it, or comparing a new build with a resale on the same tour, The Tomlin Team can lay out the current permit activity and recent sales near your address. Schedule a Consultation and we will go through the numbers with you.