Is It Better To Sell Your Home During The Winter?
There are definite advantages to buying your home in the winter. Obviously, the primary reasons are that there are more homes to choose from because there’s less competition, and the homes are cheaper. Over one million consumers will purchase a home from November through January, when home prices are lower so closings provide the best discounts for buyers, according to Forbes.
Obviously the majority of homes are sold during spring and summer months. 65% of homes are sold during the months of May, June and July. There’s more choice at that time but also many more buyers in your way. During the winter months, families usually don’t want to move their school-aged children, uprooting them during the school year. Thus, you’ll always get the best deals and have the most room for negotiation during those winter months, no matter what part of the country in which you live.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, states “Year after year, closings in January tend to show a dip in prices, suggesting that buyers who made offers in November and December got the best deals.” It’s been shown that prices can vary as much as 12% depending on the season and the area.
An economist that I recently read suggests that you modestly save $24,000 – $25,000 on your winter purchase (he was discussing Dallas) … more in some areas, such as any coastal area. “If you took that $24,000 and invested it in a low-cost index fund that returned 7% a year for the next 30 years, you’d have an extra $182,000 in your pocket as you sent in your final mortgage payment.” Nice!
Of course, because there are so many more homes for sale in the summer, that means that the winter homes often have only some new listings and a lot of the “left-overs.” That’s not always a bad thing. It means more variety of smaller houses, medium houses and some large houses as well. So, with some further searching, you’ll probably find exactly what you want. Silvana Tenreyro and L Rachel Ngai, professors at the London School of Economics stated in a recent paper on housing prices that searching in the winter is “a bit like searching for bargains in a leftovers sale. You might see low prices, but you are less likely to find your combination of size, color, and style. Only if you search a lot will you get the lucky draw.”
It seems worth the effort for the savings. That’s what’s keeping the price so low. The buyers are more serious and so are the sellers. If you do the research, you’ll find the bargain and the home you want at a great price during the winter. Put in the work, or better, get a good realtor to put in the work for you and you’ll certainly get the perfect home for yourself. Happy hunting!