What is the Best Time to List my Winnetka Home?
A very common question from home sellers interested in knowing when the market is hottest. In Winnetka and other North Shore villages, the spring months see the highest number of new homes coming on the market. The flip side is that there are also a large number of buyers looking for homes.
The peak of this year’s market was April (see chart below) when 73 new homes came on the market. That’s a lot of competition meaning buyers will be choosy, prices will need to be competitive, and your house will need to stand out to get noticed.
That is not a bad thing but it would behoove sellers to understand that listing at other seasons would mean fewer buyers - but also less competition. So it comes down to lots of inventory coupled with lots of buyers - or the exact opposite.
What matters is what works for you, the seller. If you are ready to sell and it happens to be November, should you wait until spring or go ahead and list now? I would ask you to consider:
What would you lose by listing now?
What would you lose by not listing now?
You can’t sell your house unless it’s listed for sale
The following chart from the Multiple Listing Service (MRED-Midwest Real Estate Data) shows the number of homes that were listed from December 2017 to the end of November 2018.
The month of April saw the top of the market with 73 new homes being listed. December had the least with 8, followed by November with 13 and August with 21.
A note about January and February - there were 51 and 48 respective “new” listings but many of those homes had been taken off the market in December and relisted in January or February.
So what’s the ideal time for you to list your home? I believe it’s still best to prepare your home during the winter months and list in early to mid spring. If that’s not possible in your case, list it when it’s ready to go. Sometimes your best intentions go awry and things take much longer - take a breath and know that it’s not all bad to list “off-season.”
While you're here, please see ALL NORTH SHORE HOMES FOR SALE
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Margaret Goss is a full-time real estate broker since 1998 working in the North Shore communities of Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe, Northfield, Glenview, and Evanston.
She can be reached at:
Phone: 847-977-6024
Email: margaret.goss@bairdwarner.com
See her full BIOGRAPHY
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