Severe storms are set to sting housing – but mostly at the margins
The latest blast of Arctic air and heavy snow across the eastern US raised fresh questions about whether winter weather could derail an already fragile housing recovery. For now, the impact looks more like a temporary freeze than a fundamental turning point.
In the short term, real estate activity in the hardest hit metros simply stopped. Travel bans and whiteout conditions across the Northeast corridor made in‑person real estate business nearly impossible for several days, with states of emergency, non‑essential travel bans and widespread power outages covering tens of millions of people from the Mid‑Atlantic to New England.
The disruption typically appeared as fewer new listings and contract signings in late January and February, along with closing delays as appraisers, lenders and title firms dealt with outages and staffing shortages.
Most of that business tended to be postponed rather than cancelled, with transactions usually catching up over the next month or two once roads were cleared and power restored.
Construction and renovation timelines also came under pressure. The January cold spell that brought sub‑zero wind chills and widespread power cuts already shut down outdoor work sites across parts of the South and Midwest, and the current "Blizzard of 2026" added one to two feet of snow across swathes of the Northeast.
Severe weather led to lost construction days and inspection delays, pushing back concrete, roofing and other exterior work. That, in turn, delayed delivery dates for new homes and increased costs for overtime, snow removal and repairs such as burst pipes and water intrusion.
Earlier in the year, Winter Storm Fern offered a preview of how fast weather could show up in mortgage statistics. For the week ending Jan. 30, total mortgage applications dropped 8.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis, with purchase applications down 14% and refinances off 5%, even as average 30‑year fixed rates edged down to 6.21%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
"Winter Storm Fern likely had an impact as much of the country was snowed in, hampering homebuying activity," said Joel Kan, vice president and deputy chief economist at the MBA.
"The annual increase in purchase applications was the weakest since April 2025," he said.
Climate‑linked losses suggest that the more durable fallout from repeated historic storms would come through insurance, operating costs and credit risk.
Rising premiums, higher deductibles and uncovered damage could strain some borrowers in older or lower‑income neighborhoods, echoing warnings from climate‑risk researchers that extreme weather is steadily feeding into mortgage performance and repossession risk.
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