The Best Time to Sell a House? There’s Data for That

With the spring home-buying season well underway, it raises a question: is there a best time to sell a house? According to Zillow, Seattle, the answer is yes—depending on need.

The Zillow analysis found sellers who list in the first two weeks of May typically earn the greatest premiums, but homes listed in late April sell the fastest. The first two weeks of May are typically the best time to list a home for sale to get the highest sale price. This window varies across the country, with the earliest window being in San Diego and the latest in Cincinnati.

Listing your home during this window, Zillow said, can bring a median premium of $2,100 on the typical U.S. home, and as high as $24,400 in expensive markets.

The analysis noted early May is the best time to list in 17 of the 35 largest metros in the U.S. But there are some differences across the country, which could be impacted by local market dynamics or even the weather — buyers don’t want to drive to showings or open houses through the snow, if they can avoid it. The earliest is in San Diego, where the second half of March is typically the best time to list. The latest is in Cincinnati, where sellers see the greatest premium when listing their home in the first half of July.

The typical premiums when listing during these windows are greatest in San Jose, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle. Homes in San Jose listed in late April bring a 2.1% premium, or $24,400 on a typical home there. The typical premium sellers in the Twin Cities that list in the suggested early May window can earn is 2%, or $5,700 on the median home there, while those in Seattle that list at the same time typically earn a 1.8% premium, or $9,500.

If selling quickly is the top concern, then listing a home in late April is the way to go when selling traditionally. Homes listed then sell seven days faster at the median and typically bring a $1,500 premium. Potential sellers in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Columbus may have more time to prepare, as homes typically sell the fastest there when listed in the first half of June. But those in San Francisco or Denver may have already missed the window – the median sales in those metros come the fastest when listed in early February.

“Home buyer demand ebbs and flows in a predictable cycle every year, which means that an astute seller can time their listing date like a sailor reading a tide chart to embark at high tide,” said Zillow Economist Jeff Tucker. “Many sellers are motivated to get their homes on the market by external forces, such as job moves or school years. But to the extent a home seller can target a certain time of year, it’s hard to beat selling in early May, when listings fetch the highest sale prices and move off the market quickly. Late April is not a bad option either, when homes sell even more quickly than in May, thanks to early-bird buyers rushing to beat the crowds. If this winter’s surprisingly hot leadup to home shopping season is any indication, sellers this spring will see plenty of demand and little competing inventory for their listings.”