When is the best time of year for Columbus homeowners to sell?
Columbus-area home sellers better get moving: According to Realtor.com, next week is the best time of the year to list their homes.
According to the listing site, Columbus-area sellers stand the best chance of selling their homes quickly and for a good price the week of March 20, three weeks earlier than the best time nationally.
With the Columbus housing market off to another roaring start for the year, this is why Realtor.com concluded that next week is the best week for sellers:
• Online searches for Columbus-area homes are up 26.5% the week of March 20 compared with average weeks.
• Homes with price drops are down 64.9% compared with typical weeks.
• Homes sell 19.4% faster than in average weeks.
• List prices are up 12.5% over the start of the year. In the Columbus area, for example, the average home listed for $426,576 last week, compared with $368,638 on Jan. 6.
• And competition, measured by the number of listings, is 18.1% lower than in typical weeks.
Columbus real estate:Top-selling homes sold in Greater Columbus includes $1.7 million property in Delaware County
Home buyers get lower prices in winter
While April 10 is the best average time nationally to list a home, the best weeks for specific metro areas range from March through June. In the Cleveland area, the best week is April 10, and in the Cincinnati area, the best is April 17.
Other studies, including one by The Dispatch, have found that buyers tend to get the lowest prices on homes in winter, although selection is also reduced.
Realtor.com based its findings on data from 2018, 2019 and 2021 (2020 was considered an atypical year).
“We expect the 2022 housing market to behave similarly to 2021 and pre-pandemic years,” Realtor.com analyst Hannah Jones wrote in the report. “Each week was scored based on favorability toward sellers.”
Home buyers may regain some leverage this year
What’s good for sellers isn’t good for buyers, but Jones noted that buyers may regain some leverage this year as rising mortgage rates reduces the buyer pool (and therefore competition) and inventory levels climb.
“With the inventory shortage, it has certainly been a seller’s market so far this year,” she wrote.
“However, some emerging trends hint at a possible shift in this dynamic, where sellers could potentially lose some leverage as demand from buyers cools slightly in response to rising mortgage rates, and supply increases as builders continue to accelerate production.”
Jones also pointed out that while prices tend to rise in late spring and early summer, so does competition among sellers.
“Sellers should consider that peak prices later in the season also come with greater competition from other sellers for a similar-sized pool of buyers,” she wrote.
@JimWeiker
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