Mayy sellers take their homes off the market for much of December because they say that during the holidays not many people are looking. This thinking is validated by the decrease in the number of times lockboxes were opened the week before Christmas here in the state of Oregon.
The graph below illustrates the 41% decrease for the week of 20-26 December, when compared to the number of times lockboxes were opened just the week before. Of course not every time a lock box is opened means the house was being shown to a prospective buyer - but certainly a large percentage of those openings meant a realtor had a pretty committed buyer with them.
It's really accurate to say that buyers looking in cold, wet weather and during the holidays are definetely serious. Here's hoping that some of those opened lock boxes led to sales for those sellers who kept their home on the market during the 'slow season.'
Graph from the RMLS Newsletter, 1/3/2011
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