Respectfully, I think you have the economics wrong.

But the rent in these units was significantly higher than what could be found on the perimeter

Compare like for like. How much more expensive are the detached single family homes in those downtown areas? Or how much do high rise condos cost out in the suburbs or the periphery of the city? Or the in betweens, of 5+1 construction? Or townhouses/rowhouses with shared walls but not shared roofs?

The construction of multifamily is a cost-cutting measure to offset/mitigate high land prices, as a response to those high prices, and don’t cause the underlying high prices in the first place.

Plus condo fees and taxes and higher utilities/groceries/etc.

The condo fees offset lower home insurance costs (individual unit owners aren’t directly insuring roofs, walls, or foundations in a hurricane-prone city). And utilities are cheaper because of shared walls and greater ratio of volume to surface area.

Houston is a tough city to try to be car free in, but the lack of zoning makes it actually interesting to compare actual home types in similar neighborhoods.