HOUSTON – (By Michelle Leigh Smith for Realty News Report) – The Texas real estate market moved quickly from a near standstill during Winter Storm Uri to a hot rebound as agents and brokers worked overtime to recover lost time. The storm shut down showings and closings for nearly a week, then triggered a sharp surge in activity as buyers and sellers returned to the market.
“Showings across Texas are increasing right now with the same trajectory as they declined,” said Michael Lane, president of ShowingTime, a national platform for managing home-shopping appointments. “During a 10-day stretch beginning on February 10, we saw showing traffic drop 64.2 percent. On February 20 activity started returning to normal.”
Millions of Texans were left without power for days. Frozen and burst pipes damaged thousands of homes, forcing many owners and agents to pause listings and repairs while they assessed and mitigated damage.
“I spoke with many agents who walked into vacant listings that were absolutely destroyed,” said Ashley Eoff of Keller Williams in Houston. “Luckily, most of my sellers’ and buyers’ homes were not affected. A few clients had minor pipe breaks, but nothing catastrophic. Showings were cancelled for several days while owners put their homes back in order and checked for damage. I had three contracts pending and they are all still moving forward. A few closings have been delayed because of lending and re-inspection requirements from appraisers.”
Houston’s Big Bounce-Back Week
In Houston, transactions plunged during the storm week: only 696 closings were recorded for the week ending Feb. 22. The following week, closings jumped to 2,796, according to the Weekly Activity Report from the Houston Association of Realtors. New listings also roughly doubled in that rebound week.
Landscaping damage created another challenge for sellers. “Every home I walked into had destroyed or dead landscaping,” Eoff said. “Photography will be impacted unless the entire property undergoes new landscaping.” With yards brown or damaged, agents and photographers had fewer options to present properties at their best.
Even amid outages, some deals were completed. Compass agent Dee Dee Guggenheim Howes closed several substantial deals from a Cadillac Escalade during the storm.
“We set up an office in my husband’s Escalade and, once his office had power, we went downtown,” Guggenheim Howes said. “We closed several deals from the vehicle. The kids were entertained with gaming, and we charged phones and laptops. He’s a commercial Realtor with Savills and they have new offices downtown.”
“If the landscape is dead, photographers can only do so much.”
Guggenheim Howes noted that many sellers who postponed moving last year are now preparing their homes for sale. “Those who allowed us to photograph and video before the storm were fortunate. I had five new calls in one week asking, ‘Come list my house.’ But if the landscaping is dead, photographers can only do so much.”
She also observed shifting buyer preferences during the pandemic. Many families prioritized single-family homes over high-rises or townhouses when they considered multigenerational living and space for children or grandchildren. Now, with vaccinations and an influx of buyers relocating from New York and California, high-rises and mid-rises are selling more quickly again.
Title Company’s Mercedes Van with a Fax Machine
Title companies adapted with mobile solutions. “One title company we use, Fidelity Title, has a well-equipped Mercedes Sprinter van with Wi‑Fi, scanner, fax and printer, so we were able to complete funding from the van,” said Amanda Anhorn with Greenwood King. “They brought the closing to my seller; they signed in the van’s comfortable chairs and returned to their work-from-home offices.”
Some closings, however, were pushed into later months. “I have a luxury townhome closing in the Medical Center that was scheduled for March 23 and is now delayed,” said Lisa Barnes of Coldwell Banker. “The buyer is renting and experienced a ceiling leak in the rental, so she has to relocate temporarily. Meanwhile, the buyers occupying the townhouse are purchasing a new single-family home, but the builder is behind on plumbing work. The builder needs two more weeks.”
“It becomes a domino effect,” Barnes added. “When someone sells a home, they’re typically moving into another. If new construction needs repairs, the seller’s closing gets delayed, which delays the buyer’s closing because the seller has nowhere to go.”
Home sales in Texas — and in many major U.S. cities — reached record highs in 2020, fueled by low interest rates and strong buyer demand. That momentum carried into 2021.
ShowingTime
“Texans have shown remarkable resilience and returned to their normal routines after enduring the storm’s hardships,” Lane said. “They’ve overcome weather- and pandemic-related obstacles and remain optimistic about the state’s future.”
ShowingTime reported that Texas’s surge in showing activity mirrors a nationwide boom in buyer demand. January marked the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year growth in showing activity across the country, with a 55.1 percent increase in buyer foot traffic compared with the prior year.
Texas Realtors reported a record 393,615 homes sold in the Lone Star State in 2020, the highest annual total in Texas real estate history.
March 3, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: After Storm, Realty Surges in Huge Texas Rebound