The Best Times to Buy or Sell a Home
2026
A common question from a buyer or seller is: what are the best times to buy or sell a home? Here are some guidelines to consider.
Spring and fall are better for buyers. Buying a home isn’t like buying a car or an iPad. It’s a journey that happens on your own time and only after you’ve done enough research, seen enough homes, and have your financial house in order. Nonetheless, you should know that real estate inventory does fluctuate by season. Each spring and fall, we tend to see an increase in home inventory due to the seasons. More inventory means more options for buyers.
Holidays and winter are best for sellers. It’s atypical for a seller to list their home before the holidays or in the dead of winter. But serious, eager buyers don’t care about the season or timing. At any time during the year, there will be a highly motivated, experienced buyer ready to make an offer. I’ve written contracts on Thanksgiving, closed escrow on New Year’s Eve, and even had a serious buyer make an offer from a beach in Hawaii. If you can sell “off season,” you may fare better because there are still serious buyers but fewer homes for sale.
The best time of day to list a home. The Sunday open house, particularly the first Sunday, is the holy grail of real estate. In the digital age, the listing goes “live” online. Sellers and agents work hard to clean, paint or prep the home in time for the photo shoot. Agents and sellers tend to rush to the finish. So you’ll see many listings hit the market late Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, with Sunday being the first showing. Instead, try listing on Monday or Tuesday and don’t do any showings until the open house on Sunday. You can build momentum and have a very strong first open house.
