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The Best Month to List Your Home Is…

By Steve Matthews

Monday, May 2nd, 2016

According to real estate website Zillow, May is the best month to put a home on the market in all but 7 of the 25 biggest U.S. metro areas.

Homes listed in the first half of May sold 18.5 days faster and 0.9% more money than the national average, according to analysis of the past three years as published by the Wall Street Journal.

Warm weather and the September start to the school year motivate many people to shop in the spring and close in the summer.

May’s “magic window” for listing a home is a change from a previous analysis, which examined 2011 and 2012 data and found that March was the prime time for listing.

Why the change? 

It’s mostly due to the drop in homes on the market, which has effectively extended the buying season, according to the WSJ article.  Buyer’s who have made multiple (unsuccessful) offers may be ready to pay more for a property and get a deal done.  By May, many buyers start to get relatively desperate in terms of wanting to get into a home, especially before the kids start the next school year.

The May boost was most notable in Chicago and Baltimore, where sellers listed in the first half of the month could expect to close the sale 22.5 days faster than the national average (with prices 1.2% and 1.1% higher, respectively).   Of the 25 metro areas, Seattle’s sellers stood to gain the biggest price boost – 2.6% over the national average – while New York offered a mere 0.6% increase.

When Philadelphia homes were listed in the first half of May they sold 12.5 days faster than the national average with prices 1.0% higher.