The winter storm put a chill on Houston’s housing market in February, ending a five-month streak of double-digit sales gains.

The number of single-family home sales rose to 6,049 in February, a 1.2 percent increase over February 2020 and the ninth straight month of gains, the Houston Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Year-over-year sales had jumped more than 25 percent each month since September.

“The Houston housing market showed resiliency again last month, coming through strong despite the brutal winter storm that caused widespread power outages, property damage and briefly held up transactions and showings,” HAR Chairman Richard Miranda said in the housing report.

Home sales during the pandemic have been strong, rebounding a drop in April and May of last year.

The median February sales price reached a record $275,900, a 12.6 percent increase over the previous year, according to HAR. The average also set a record, rising 16.2 percent to $349,963.

The gains were tempered by the winter storm in mid-February, when millions of Texans lost heat and electricity as temperatures plunged below freezing. Widespread power outages led to burst pipes in properties throughout the city, causing delays in closings while plumbing related repairs were made.

Closings were delayed as sellers struggled to find plumbers and parts to make the necessary repairs and insurance adjusters were backed up because of the volume of claims, said Amy Bernstein of Bernstein Realty.

Some lenders required a visit to the site to make sure there was no damage, further delaying some closings, Bernstein said. All the while, interest rates ticked up, potentially costing buyers more if their rate expired.

“There was a period for about two weeks where it was very inconvenient for both buyers and sellers,” Bernstein said, adding that most of her transactions in process are back on the path to close.

The cold weather and lack of power kept people at home rather than out touring houses.

“We saw a dramatic slowdown in showing activity,” said Michael Lane, president of ShowingTime, a showing management and market stats technology provider.

After a strong start to 2021, for the 10 day stretch starting on Feb. 10, home showings in major Texas markets dropped 64 percent, according to ShowingTime.

For the full month, February showings in Houston were down 9 percent from January levels.

Lane said showings typically rebound after weather-related stalls. The storm’s timing came as people may have been preparing to list their homes for the spring as pandemic restrictions ease in Texas and many parts of the nation experience a shortage of listings, Lane said.

In Houston, active listings of single-family homes fell to 12,954 in February, down from 24,100 in Feb. 2020, according to HAR.

“As we head into spring, we urgently need more listings to enter the marketplace or we risk having extremely limited inventory for consumers that want to buy a home now, especially with the prospect of rising mortgage interest rates,” said Miranda of HAR.

Months of inventory, which estimate the time it would take to sell all the houses on the market based on recent activity, dropped to a record low of 1.6 months. Homes that sold in February spent an average of 48 days on the market, selling 20 days faster than a year ago, according to HAR. Six months of inventory is considered a balanced market. Inventory was 3.3 months in February 2020.

Housing inventory nationally is also at a historic low of a 1.9-months supply, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Leasing momentum slowed, according to HAR. Single-family home rentals fell 26.1 percent for the year in February, while the average rent went up 8.7 percent to $1,924.

Buyers are trying to purchase homes before interest rates rise. Last week, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage passed 3 percent for the first time since July 2020, according to a survey Freddie Mac. Rates had sunk as low as 2.65 since the start of the pandemic.

Sales of luxury homes pushed prices to record territory. Sales of homes priced at $750,000 and up rose 64.9 percent compared to February 2020. For homes priced from $500,000 to $749,999 the increase was 55.3 percent, while sales of homes of from $250,000 to $499,999 rose by 16 percent, according to HAR.

Homes selling from $150,000 to $249,999 fell by 16.8 percent, according to HAR.

Pending sales, an indication of future closings, climbed 11.6 percent to 8,288, according to HAR.

Banny Lim, a real estate agent with Century 21 Olympian, said it is not unusual for homes in the $250,000 to $300,000 price range to receive multiple offers above the list price.

His buyers in that popular price segment are crafting their best offers to stand out, often offering to waive the appraisal addendum. That means even if the home’s appraisal comes back with a value that is less than the sales price, the buyer puts more money down to push the deal through.

Lim said updated houses sell for asking price or more.