-Dave Lenhardt, April 2024
Did you know that home sale prices rise and fall seasonally each year regardless of what the overall market is doing?
In fact, over the past 10 years that home sale prices have been steadily rising, they have also seasonally decreased an average of about 15% between the spring/summer peak and following fall/winter lull. In fact, since 2014, each and every year saw a decrease in Metro Boston sale prices of at least 11% between summer to winter. That off-season discount equated to a $75,000 to $224,000 difference per average home from 2014 through 2023, as can be seen in this graph of sale prices of single-family homes in Metro Boston:
One thing to keep in mind is that the months shown in the graph are when sales closed, so the corresponding months when peak-priced homes were listed are April and May. As you can imaging, the month when homes listed achieve the absolute lowest sale price each year is December.
Although some agents claim that there’s never a bad time of year to list a home in a rising market, the data seems to suggest otherwise. With that said, sometimes the carrying cost & risks associated with waiting for spring to list your home can be high, with vacant homes being subjected to heating bills, frozen pipes / water damage, and vandalism, etc. I would personally prefer to pay to winterize a vacant property in order to have it in one piece to list within the spring market, but I that assumes I didn’t need the sale proceeds right away. A need for liquid cash sooner would be just one of many reasons a late fall or winter listing might make the most sense in a particular situation.
Every situation is unique. Let’s discuss yours and come up with a listing plan together!