Data provided by Redfin, a national real estate brokerage.
What time of year most favors buyers or sellers in the Madison WI housing market?
There is a general understanding among consumers and Realtors that Spring is the busiest time of year in the residential real estate market. The data backs up this consensus with home sales showing consistent peaks in May and June.
Home Sales
Home sellers tend to anticipate the strong seasonal demand in the Spring as we see consistent spikes in new listings in March-May:
New Listings
What is less well known is how the strong Spring demand impacts sale prices relative to the lower demand seasons. The chart below shows the spread of sales prices over/under list price throughout the year.
Another metric reflecting buyer demand is Days on Market (DOM) (the time from listing to contract). The chart below of average Days on Market shows that homes are on the market longer in the lower demand late Fall early Winter timeframe and sell more quickly in the Spring.
Takeaways
Spring is the busiest and most competitive time of year for home buyers, with homes often selling quickly and over list price. Fall and early winter is the least competitive time of year resulting in lower average selling prices, and most favors buyers.
We can speculate as to the reasons for the seasonal demand variations. The favorable spring weather makes house hunting easier and more enjoyable, there is a higher inventory of available homes, and moving in the summer aligns with school schedules for many families considering a new home.
In late Fall early Winter, there are less daylight hours and often challenging weather for home touring. Sellers may be more motivated to sell in the Fall/Winter either because their home has been on the market a long time, or because they are listing their home in the slowest time of year due to a job change or another reason which is causing some urgency.
The data represents generalizations. An individual home could easily sell above list price in the late Fall or below list price in the Spring, depending upon pricing and hyper local market conditions.
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