Storm cooled home sales, but purchases ticking up

Home sales cooled in the San Antonio area in February as the winter storm left properties damaged and delayed closings.

Icy roads and power outages temporarily set back transactions. Pipes ruptured during the freeze across the region.

Buyers in Bexar and surrounding counties closed on 2,413 homes in February, a 0.75 percent increase over the same month last year, according to the San Antonio

Board of Realtors (SABOR).

The market has been on a hot streak for months, and sales rose 22.4 percent in January. But despite the brief slowdown caused by the storm, sales in February still ticked up, said Cher Miculka, SABOR’S board chairman.

The median price rose 11 percent to $264,100. Houses spent an average of 51 days on the market in February, a decline from 74 days during the same month last year.

Inventory — measured by how long it takes for a home to sell if no

new homes are listed — dropped to 1.4 months.

Six months is generally considered a balance between buyers and sellers.

Miculka said she’s noticing an increase in the supply of available homes. But “we’re still in a shortage, we’re still in bid wars,” she added.

Winter is usually a slow season for sales, yet that hasn’t been the case this year, said Rachel Briseño Bruno, realtor and owner of Re/max Unlimited in San Antonio.

“I think it’s a mixture of the pandemic and these crazy-low interest rates,” she said.

Families usually wait until the summer to move, but many children have been attending school virtually during the pandemic, Bruno added. People who have been working from home for months are looking for more space, and first-time buyers are also jumping into the market.

With demand skyrocketing, inventory is the biggest hurdle for house hunters, she said. Homes priced under $250,000 are getting harder to find.

“You definitely have to have all of your ducks in a row before you start (looking) because homes are moving so, so quickly,” Bruno said.

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