Best Time of the Year to Sell Your House

When selling your home in New York, timing is everything.  

You’ll either have prospective buyers with competing offers right away, getting your asking price or more or have few inquiries and open houses with low attendance.

The scenario you have depends on the time of year you put your house on the market. 

Just as there are seasons for beach vacations and tomatoes, there’s the best time of year for selling your house in New York. 

Thinking of seasonality when selling your home in New York is essential to getting your asking price and more and selling your house quickly. 

If you’re looking for someone to buy your house in New York, we’ll look at the best month and the best time of year to bring higher selling prices and quicker sales. We’ll also examine other factors such as the housing market, world events, interest rates, and your home itself. 

House Market Overview in New York 

Ultimately, the best time of the year to sell your home in New York is the month when you need to sell your home to move along with your life and career. That being said, there are better times than others in the housing market when you are likely to get more than the listing price for your home.  

Realtors will tell you that there is the best month of the year to sell your home in New York. The school year starting, the holiday season and winter weather all play a part in determining the best time to list your home in New York. With a real estate agent June, July, and August is the best time to sell your home in New York. 

As summer moves into September and the start of autumn, it becomes the worst time of the year to sell your home in New York.

If you’re looking to sell your home quickly, you can also consider cash home buyers in Buffalo, Brooklyn, or other popular areas of New York. Finding reliable companies that buy houses in Brooklyn, or in New York can get you cash in hand fast so you can move on to the next chapter of your life. 

Things to Consider When Selling a Home in New York

Myriad factors other than the weather and start of the school year influence the best time of the year to sell your home in New York. Realtors say these conditions have an impact on the different ways to sell a house: 

Closing Costs 

Picking up the closing costs of selling your home in New York can make sales happen more quickly. This happens more often when it’s not a seller’s market. 

Real Estate Market 

Since the start of the pandemic, the American housing market has been what’s known as a seller’s market. Fewer houses on the market mean those home sellers can ask for higher prices. In a seller’s market, home buyers make competing offers for your home, meaning that you will likely get more than your asking price.  

Interest Rate 

The interest rate influences the mortgage rate, or the rate lenders charge for borrowing money through a mortgage loan. Right now, the interest rate in the U.S. is at a historic low, meaning that lending money for the purchase of a home is more affordable than ever. Those with a higher credit score will get lower mortgage rates. 

Market Trends 

Housing market prices are influenced by current domestic and world conditions such as the pandemic but also by inflation, the job market, the state of the U.S. economy, the supply of houses, and the demand for them. This can influence how fast your home sells, pricing in your city and neighborhood, and whether you get your list price or more.  

Sale-to-list ratio in New York by Month

According to the sale-to-list ratio in New York, June, July, and August were the top months to sell a house. 

A sale-to-list ratio determines the percentage of how much a home sold for by taking the home’s final sale price divided by its list price. A percentage of 100% shows that a home sold for more than its original listing price.

Below, we will look at the median sale-to-list ratio by month:

_{Source: Redfin Data Center, Jan 2019-Dec 2019}

Best Time of Year to Sell Your House in New York

Homebuyers tend to buy homes and move during the warmer months of the year, so there are more prospective buyers on Zillow looking for homes. More prospective buyers mean that you can have a higher asking price and get more offers on your home. 

If you are selling your home, then you’ll most likely need to buy another home. Whether you’re staying in New York or retiring to Miami, Florida, you’ll likely be involved in home buying, starting with a search on Zillow for houses on the market. 

By listing your home in New York at the beginning of spring, you have time for your property to sell, to make an offer on a new home, close, and move in before colder weather begins. 

This makes spring and summer the best time of year to sell your house. There’s warm weather for moving and sunshine for all those gardening projects. Evenings are pleasant for neighborhood barbecues, and there’s plenty of time to tour schools and prepare children for the new school year.

Best Month to Sell Your House in New York 

To determine the best month to sell your home in New York, ATTOM Data Solutions compiled real estate sales figures from 2011 to 2017. July was found to be the best month of the year for home selling in New York. 

Families moving to your area will want to buy a home and get moved in before the start of a new school year. The weather is better for moving than in the winter months, and your lawn and landscaping will look better during warmer months.  

Keep in mind that ATTOM Data Solutions only figured in the selling date, not the closing date, which can be about a month to six weeks after the selling date. To include time for open houses marketing, they found that the ideal time to list your house for sale with a real estate agent in New York is between March and April. 

Around then, winter weather should be leaving, and landscaping will begin to look its best for optimum curb appeal. Families will start planning a move during the summer before children start a new school year in a new school district. 

A summertime move-in leaves plenty of time for making a house a home. Painting projects, adding new window treatments, and buying new furniture may be on the agenda. 

There’s plenty of time on this schedule for preparing for the holiday season, a time when families may want to have houseguests to enjoy their new home. Many homebuyers look forward to holiday decorating in a new home, envisioning a Christmas tree aglow, a roaring fire in the fireplace, and a dining table set for a crowd. 

All of this adds up to the warmer months being the best time to sell your home in New York. If you’re planning to buy a larger home for a growing family or downsize and move to Miami or Los Angeles for retirement, arrange the sale of your home by listing it in March or April. You’ll likely have a home sale in July.  

Worst Time of Year to Sell Your House in New York

If spring and summer are the best times to list your home with a real estate agent, then what is the worst time of the year to sell your house in New York? That would be the autumn and winter, a time when Realtor.com says a house’s time on the market increases by 38 percent and competition rises by 22 percent.  

This makes sense, as children are back in classes by September when the new school year starts. Home selling becomes more difficult as days pass and holidays approach. 

The weather may not be as much of a factor in Los Angeles, but in New York and the northeastern region of the U.S., autumn signals the start of colder weather. Fall and winter are times of the year when many families would rather be settled in for the winter than move from one place to another. 

For all these reasons, fall and winter are the worst times of the year to sell your house in New York. 

However, if you’re buying a home, September is one of the best months to make an offer. Fewer buyers and homes spending longer on the market will add up to getting a better price on the home you’re buying.  

Worst Month to Sell a House in New York

Based on the sale-to-list ratio, we can determine that December is the worst month to sell a house in New York.

Many people don’t have the intention of changing homes during the holidays, and with so many expenses around this time of year, buying a home may not be the best idea. 

How to Sell Your Home in New York

For more information on ways to sell your home easier, contact a realtor in your area. They can help you plan to list your home in the best time of year to sell your home and advise you of ways to improve your home’s curb appeal.

However, if you’re looking to bypass all of the technicalities and sell a house asap, check out Leave The Key Homebuyers for a quick and fair estimate on a cash offer.