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September 19th, 2022 at 11:00 am

What’s the Best Month to Sell a House?

In a nutshell, the right time to sell varies by neighborhood and city. However, according to Bankrate, quoting ATTOM, the best month to sell a house is in May. 

However, May is not always the best time for every situation. You must take several factors into consideration. A real estate agent at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services California Properties can help you determine the best time of year to sell a house.

The best month to sell a house for me

Since you already know that the best month to sell a house is in May, you have to ensure the economic factors line up. The factors you need to take into consideration include:

Interest rates

As of the third quarter of 2022, interest rates are rising and have been rising for most of the year. If you plan on selling in the spring, you should take note of the interest rates now and watch for them to decrease. Even if they only decrease a part of a percentage point, you will have a better chance of selling for a higher amount and faster.

Job growth

Without job growth, people may be afraid to spend money, especially when it’s time to purchase the biggest investment in their lives. Instead of putting your home on the real estate market as a spontaneous decision, plan it ahead of time so you can watch job growth numbers and other factors that change from month to month.

Always pull your information from a reliable site, such as BLS.gov, instead of listening to how your favorite news channel spins the numbers. However, be careful how the government lists its growth and unemployment rates. Long-term unemployment – over 27 weeks – may not have declined because people went back to work, but instead because they can no longer collect unemployment.

Financial markets

If you invest in stocks and pay attention to them, you know they are fickle. The bottom could fall out at any time. Or, the stocks could skyrocket. Instead of looking at a day or even a week or month at a time, look at what the stocks have done over a year. If despite steep drops, the stocks have increased overall, it shows confidence in the economy.

Local market activity

The local home-buying and selling activity is always changing. Some people do their homework to determine the best time of year to sell a house, others make spontaneous decisions, and others are forced to move and do not have a choice because of a job transfer or a sick relative.

Your Berkshire Hathaway real estate agent can help you determine when it is the best month to sell a house. If the difference isn’t too large, it might be more prudent for you to sell sooner rather than later.

Seasonal considerations

When everything else lines up, you also have to take the season into consideration when determining the best time of year to sell a house.

Spring

Buyer demand usually peaks in the spring since people want to move while their children are out of school. However, inventory also increases, which means you have more competition. If everything lines up for you to sell in the spring, you should make your house stand out by making sure it has curb appeal. While we are taught not to judge a book by its cover, you know that it rarely happens when selling a house. 

First impressions are a big deal when selling a house. Make sure your real estate agent knows why your house is special. In fact, you should tell your agent why you love the house. It might help him or her write a description that tugs at another family’s heartstrings.

Summer

The competition on the real estate market remains high, but people are more motivated because it’s getting closer to the start of school. People may be more likely to settle for something that is not 100 percent to their expectations. Depending on your location, this could significantly benefit you in time on the market and at a higher price.

Fall

Competition among sellers starts to drop, as does real estate activity. Many people found a house in the spring or summer, and others are taking their homes off the housing market for the winter. However, this could be a boon for you if you list in the fall. Since the inventory is lower – people have fewer homes to choose from – it could mean a fast sale for you. While most people like to try to move during the spring or summer, there are those who are spontaneous and those who are forced into moving because of their jobs or other reasons.

If the other factors line up, selling in the fall could mean a faster sale, especially if you have a home that is harder to sell.

Winter

Winter is when home sales really slow down. However, you again have off-season buyers because they may have been forced to move or just like being spontaneous. We found that those who buy in the off-season are often more qualified and serious. 

Additionally, home sales often slow down because the sellers can’t show off their homes like they would like to be able to. You won’t see lush landscaping, the pool won’t be open, and it’s also hard to create curb appeal with landscaping and exterior updates if it’s too cold.

Sellers’ market and buyers’ market

You may have heard the terms “sellers’ market” and “buyers’ market” tossed around. Just what do these terms mean, and why do you need to know about them?

Selling in a buyers’ market

When the number of properties for sale is greater than the number of people looking for a home, you have a buyers’ market. Because there are plenty of homes to choose from, your home tends to stay on the local market longer. Thus, it’s more important to make your home stand out among the rest of them for sale.

How do you fight the uphill battle of selling in a sellers’ market? You’ll probably get more feedback from buyers – and some of it might not be good. Just remember that because you love something about the home, it doesn’t mean everyone is going to like it. Don’t take it personally. You should also get ready to hear some lowball offers. You do not have to accept any offer you don’t like. People believe you might accept a lowball offer just to get out from under the house. Don’t be afraid to tell your real estate agent it’s a firm “No.”

If you have some wiggle room on the price, you might consider a lower offer. Or, if you don’t, you might work with your real estate agent to consider other concessions, such as offering a convenient closing date, including appliances, or waiving certain contingencies.

You can also choose to wait it out. Some people put their home on the housing market during the spring and summer, remove it during the late fall, and relist it during the spring.

Selling in a sellers’ market

In a sellers’ market, more people are looking for homes than available homes. The inventory is low. You will most likely sell faster and at a higher price. Because you may receive several offers, you could sell for the listing price or even higher.

This doesn’t mean you should skimp on making the home presentable and desirable. As you would in a buyers’ market, make sure the curb appeal is there and you do any upgrades possible. You can only get more for your home if it’s more desirable. You could even start a bidding war among two or more buyers.

Updates to help your home sell

Regardless of when you decide to sell your home or which type of market it is, you should expect to fix certain things. Updates, if you can afford them, it helps a home to sell, regardless of the best time of year to sell a house. However, before you tackle updates, be sure you have taken care of repairs that an inspector will find. If you don’t, the home buyer will most likely ask you to come down on your price, especially if the repair is major, such as a roof or air conditioning unit.

Other mandatory repairs include cosmetic repairs that help make the home give a good first impression, such as window screens, exterior paint, and updating fixtures.

Some of the updates you might consider include:

Ask your real estate agent to give you an hour or two notice – or more, if you need it – before showing so that you can make sure everything is in its place and the house is sparkling. This is especially important in a buyers’ market. Your home has to be nearly perfect to attract the interest of someone who might be choosing between two or more homes.

Trust a California Properties real estate agent with your home sale

Selling a home is usually stressful for most people, and if it is not the best time of year to sell a house, but you are forced into it because of a career move or another reason, it becomes more stressful. 

When you trust a California Properties real estate agent with your home sale, you know that he or she will be looking out for your interests and will work to sell it as quickly as possible for the best price possible. Find a California Properties real estate agent with the skills and experience you need to sell your home.

Sources: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, Time Square Chronicles, Bankrate, Attom

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  • Danielle Okafor says:

    The point about May being statistically strongest but not universally right really resonates. I’d add that in California the coastal markets often behave differently from inland ones because inventory tightens around different school and relocation cycles, so pulling your own local comps matters more than the national average ATTOM cites. One angle the article doesn’t touch is how people psychologically time big purchases — the same way buyers browse in spring, audiences for story-driven media tend to binge in winter, which is a useful reminder that seasonal demand shifts by category, not just real estate. I noticed that pattern clearly on free browser visual novels, where otome and horror titles spike at completely different times of year than romance. Either way, watching job growth and rates before listing still seems like the smartest takeaway here.

  • Danielle Reyes says:

    This is a solid breakdown of the seasonal timing question, and I appreciate that you didn’t just stop at “sell in May” without mentioning that inventory rises alongside demand in spring. One factor often overlooked when prepping a listing in that window is how much curb appeal actually costs in effort versus impact. For Cricut-and-vinyl folks or anyone doing a quick DIY refresh, I’ve used cut-ready stencil templates to turn text and photos into clean SVG or DXF files for address plaques, porch signs and staging accents — exporting in a few formats and printing at home kept things cheap before showings. Small, personalized touches like that can help a house feel memorable in a crowded spring market without a full remodel, which pairs well with the pricing and interest-rate advice you’ve laid out here.

  • Marcus Feldman says:

    Solid breakdown of the seasonal factors, though I’d push back slightly on treating May as a universal rule. In practice, the best month often has less to do with the calendar and more to do with how well you’ve prepared ahead of listing. Sellers who spend January through March handling inspections, minor repairs, and staging tend to capture the spring demand far more effectively than those who scramble once the weather turns. One small addition worth making: pricing strategy matters just as much as timing. A home priced correctly in a slower month frequently outperforms an overpriced one in peak season, especially when inventory is thin. If you’re the type who likes comparing data before making a call, the same logic of weighing odds and tiering options shows up in gaming communities too — for instance, this Slayers 2 Wiki breakdown of breathing styles is a good example of how players rank builds by patch. Real estate is similar: the market shifts, so revisit your assumptions each season rather than relying on one headline number.

  • Karen Whitfield says:

    This is one of the more balanced takes I’ve read on timing a sale — most articles just repeat the May statistic without acknowledging how much interest rates and local inventory actually move the needle. The point about spring inventory cutting both ways is worth repeating to sellers who assume peak demand automatically means a faster close. One thing I’d add: sellers in slower months often lean on staging and curb appeal to compensate, and the same instinct applies to how you present yourself in other high-stakes decisions. I’ve been using an AI palm reading tool lately that reads personality and future trends from a photo of your hand, and it’s a surprisingly fun way to sanity-check your instincts before a big move. Either way, pulling real data from BLS instead of cable news is the part most people skip.

  • Karen Whitfield says:

    The point about job growth and financial markets shaping seller timing is one sellers often overlook; everyone fixates on May, but local employment data and rate trends can matter just as much as the calendar. One thing I’d add is that reading the underlying economic signals takes time, and the same is true in research-heavy fields, which is why resources like AI for science news and tools can be useful for tracking how data and modeling are changing decision-making across industries. For sellers, pairing that macro awareness with an agent who knows your specific neighborhood still seems like the most reliable approach, especially when inventory tightens in fall and winter.

  • Karen Whitfield says:

    Interesting timing on this piece, especially the point about pulling job growth data straight from BLS.gov instead of relying on how the news frames it. That habit of going to primary sources rather than summaries is underrated, and it applies to a lot more than real estate research. I’ve noticed the same thing when following how a topic develops across sources online, where it’s easy to end up downstream of someone else’s interpretation. A while back I started playing WikiRace Online, a free browser game where you race between Wikipedia articles using only in-page links, and it’s basically training for that skill: you learn quickly which sources are hubs and which are dead ends. There’s a daily challenge with a global leaderboard, plus ranked 1v1 and multiplayer rooms if you want to compete. Worth trying if you enjoy tracing how information actually connects.

  • Marcus Deller says:

    The May peak is well documented, but I appreciate that the article immediately qualifies it with interest rates and job growth rather than treating the calendar as destiny. One variable I rarely see mentioned is inventory lag — in many California submarkets, the listings that close in May were actually priced and photographed in late March and early April, so sellers who wait until spring officially arrives are often competing against a wave of better-prepared neighbors. That argues for treating February as a prep month, not a listing month, and watching rate movement before committing to a launch date. The point about local market activity is also underrated; in slower coastal pockets, September can outperform a crowded spring simply because serious buyers are still shopping with less competition. For anyone weighing timeline tradeoffs more broadly — including how market conditions change payouts in virtual economies and life sims — the breakdowns at Lagos Life job payouts explained offer a fun comparison of how timing and role choice affect earnings. Worth a look if you enjoy that kind of data-driven breakdown.

  • Marcus Delgado says:

    Solid breakdown of the May peak versus the seasonal trade-offs. One thing I would add is that the data-driven approach you describe for interest rates and job growth applies just as well to things buyers actually evaluate in a listing, like whether a property is priced and staged relative to local comps rather than the calendar alone. I have seen sellers in competitive spring inventory lose traction because they ignored how much their immediate neighborhood had shifted since last year. For anyone who likes to see how systems break down into measurable layers, I have found the same structured thinking useful in game progression tier lists, where every stat and cost is documented with a source instead of guesswork. Either way, timing matters less than preparation and accurate local numbers.

  • Marcus Feldner says:

    The point about May being the statistical peak but not always the right call for every seller is well taken, and the local market activity factor is probably underweighted by most homeowners. One thing I would add from watching listing data is that the spread between spring and late fall in many California submarkets has narrowed since rates climbed, so timing matters less than pricing accuracy and preparation. Sellers who treat the prep window like a project with a checklist tend to outperform those who just wait for the calendar. Interestingly, the same principle shows up in niche communities where people optimize heavily around patch cycles and meta shifts, like the loadout planning tools on the Outlast Trials Wiki, where knowing exactly what a build costs before you commit saves a lot of wasted effort. Same logic applies to pre-listing repairs and staging budgets.

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