Lowest home prices are usually from January Average sales prices are more affordable between October and February compared to other months of the year. The number of homes sold tends to increase in the spring season. Home sales between February and March increase 24%, followed by the busiest months of May, June, July and August. In contrast, the slowest months are November, December, January and February.
Spring is usually when most home sales activities begin, but home sales really heat up in the months. However, real estate is all about location, and where you live can have an impact on your home's peak sales season. Winter is often the cheapest time of year to buy a home. Salespeople are often motivated, which automatically translates into an advantage for you.
Most people suspend their listings from Thanksgiving to the New Year because they assume that buyers are scarce. Sellers who do list at that time tend to want to sell as soon as possible. They may even be more willing to add additional benefits, such as appliances and window treatments. Spring is generally the best time of year to list your home, at least in the years leading up to the pandemic-driven housing boom.
This is when buyers tend to break out of winter hibernation and hit the market en masse. As we've talked about, the summer months are the busiest for real estate and they generally have the best-selling units on the market. While winter is traditionally the slowest season for home sales, if your weather is warm all year round (think Florida and the Southwest), your sales window may be even better in the winter months, as snowbirds flock to the sun in droves. You'll also want to feel secure in your employment and income, ready to commit to living in a specific area, and prepared to handle the various costs of owning a home and avoiding becoming a poor home.
Seasonality in the housing market is likely to be maintained in some way, even if changes from season to season are less dramatic than in the past. However, this increase in inventory will take a “measured pace,” Ratiu says, because most home sellers do not effectively increase housing inventory without also contributing to increased demand. It may take you 60-90 days to sell a house in the summer, but it will take 120 days to sell it in the winter for the same price. The Zillow Homeowners Dashboard is the quickest way to know which month is the best to list a home in your area and estimates the selling price of your home now compared to the fall and winter months of October and December that have the lowest seller premiums earned, with 5.8% less than half of the 13.4% won by a May Sale.
One of the reasons sales inventory tends to increase when temperatures rise is because homes look better. List your house on a Thursday to increase the chances of your house selling faster and for more money. As you can see from the above trends, people tend to buy houses as the weather gets warmer, so preparing your home in the winter months to sell it in the spring usually makes sense. It's hard to overstate the importance of personal preparation when determining if you should buy a home.
If you buy a home in the spring and plan to change it in the winter, you should make a 5% price adjustment to have room to negotiate when selling the property, especially if you don't want your home to stay on the market for long. Determining the best time to start homeownership means understanding the pros and cons of buying a home at different times, and deciding when is best for you. .
