Montgomery County Considers Second Lot Size Increase in 13 Months — Ellison Development Shares What It Could Mean for Housing Affordability

CONROE, TX — A public hearing
is scheduled for April 9, 2026 at the Montgomery County Commissioners Court to
address a proposed increase to the minimum residential lot width in
unincorporated areas of the county — from 40 feet to 50 feet. Ellison
Development, a horizontal land developer with communities throughout unincorporated
Montgomery County, is sharing data and perspective on how the proposed change
could affect housing affordability for working families in the region.

Montgomery County adopted
a 40-foot minimum
lot width in March 2025 as part of its first overhaul of development
regulations in over 40 years. The proposed change before commissioners would
raise that minimum again to 50 feet — a second
increase in just 13 months.
Builder analysis documented by Community Impact
estimates that each additional 10 feet of required lot width adds approximately
$100,000 to the cost of a new home, through increased land cost and the larger
home typically built on a wider lot.

“The communities we have developed
in this county — Marie Village, William Trails, Castle’s Edge — were made
possible by attainable lot sizes,” said Bill

Ellison, founder of Ellison Development. “We have
seen firsthand what happens when working families can access homeownership, and
we have seen what happens when they can’t. The data on this is clear — lot size
is one of the most direct drivers of home price,
and what gets decided at this hearing
will shape who can afford to live in this county for
years to come.”

The hearing comes
against a backdrop
of sustained affordability pressure in the Houston region. The Houston
Association of Realtors’ Q4 2025 Affordability Report found that 56% of
Houston-area households cannot afford the current median home price of
$337,200. A 2025 study from Rice University’s Kinder Institute found the median
affordability gap — the difference between what a median-income household
can afford and what homes actually cost — stands at
approximately $130,000. The National Association of Home Builders’ 2023

Priced-Out study found that every $1,000 increase in home price eliminates 3,054 potential buyers from the Houston
metro market.

For the families currently living in Ellison Development
communities, the difference between renting and owning has been life-changing.
“I never thought I would own a home,” said Melissa, a homeowner in an
Ellison Development community in Montgomery County. “I thought
I was doomed to rent for the rest of my life — and I am here now.” For Victoria and Joshua, another
couple who found an attainable home in the county,
the experience redefined what felt possible. “It is not a dream that our
age group kind of gets to have anymore,” Joshua said. “So it was
amazing to find something attainable — that we can own something, and build
generational wealth.”

A 2024 Aspen Institute study found that the median net
worth of U.S. homeowners stands at approximately $400,000, compared to $10,400
for renters

— a gap of nearly
40 times. That wealth gap begins the moment a family is priced
out of buying and into permanent renting instead.

“Something worth noting in this conversation is the
regulatory asymmetry between rental and ownership housing,” said Colleen
Ellison, co-founder of Ellison Development. “Apartment construction in the
Houston area faces no equivalent lot-size restriction — 7,770 new apartment
units were built in 2025 alone. Single-family homes, which are the only housing
type that allows a family to build equity and generational wealth, face
increasing restrictions on the land they can be built on. That gap is worth
understanding when evaluating any policy that
affects the price of new ownership housing.”

The Texas Legislature addressed the relationship between
lot size minimums and housing affordability in its 2025 session, passing Senate
Bill 15 — which prohibits large
municipalities from requiring residential lot widths greater than 20 feet in
new single-family subdivisions. The law took effect September 1, 2025 and
reflects a statewide legislative recognition that minimum lot size requirements are a significant barrier to housing affordability.

Ellison
Development currently has two communities under active development in
unincorporated Montgomery County — Baron Village and Saddle Village — designed
to bring attainable homeownership to first-time buyers, veterans, and workforce families.
The company is encouraging all interested residents
to attend the April 9 hearing
and learn more about the proposed change and its potential impact.