As Realtors®, we know that because we work in a very public-facing sector, it’s quite common for people to take a very vested interest in our industry. Whether they’re Buyers, Sellers, investors, or developers, everyone seems to have an opinion on how the real estate industry works.
And, in some ways, their opinions aren’t incorrect — especially when it comes to our seasonal activity cycles. Traditionally speaking, real estate activity does operate around predictable high and low seasons. For example, the spring market is typically the best time to sell, followed by the fall market, with both summer and winter being quieter times of the year.
However, due to extraneous circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic, that cycle has somewhat broken in recent years as our market has seen immense activity no matter what the date on the calendar reads. In fact, if there’s anything we’ve learned from the past year or so, it’s that Buyers will buy and Sellers will sell whenever it makes the most sense for them.
That being said, there still are some general timing guidelines when it comes to optimizing returns from a home sale that we industry insiders know to be true. If you’d like to learn more about what Realtors® lookout for when timing the launch of a new listing, our blog post here is for you.
Follow The Money
No matter which industry you’re in, those who hold the money have the biggest influence, and real estate is no different. When Buyers have spending power, they’ll use it — no matter what time of year it is.
However, while budgets aren’t seasonal, Buyers do depend on a few other factors working in their favour to help them expense the purchase of a new home.
Things like mortgage and interest rates play a big part in whether or not Buyers can afford to take out a loan and enter the market. Needless to say, the economy, as well as inflections in those borrowing rates, certainly don’t follow a calendar.
Although general clues and themes can help, there’s no certain way of predicting what the economy will do in the future. That’s why shrewd Sellers know that when interest rates are low, it’s a smart time to sell. Or, when inventory levels are low (meaning Sellers have less direct competition) and buyer demands are high, it’s also a favourable time to list.
Rather than depend on a season where real estate markets are traditionally active, it’s much more lucrative to pay attention to the numbers and list your home for sale when it makes sense.
No matter when you plan on selling your home, one of the most important elements to every lucrative sale is having a comprehensive marketing plan in place. See how we help earn our sellers top dollar by reading the related links below:
The Best Time To Sell Is Now
Considering our previous point, we’d advise our selling clients that the best time to list their home for sale is now.
Currently, we’re in a Seller’s market — this means Buyers have money and they want to spend it, however, Buyers’ demands far outweigh the limited supply of homes up for sale. Seller’s markets are a classic case of supply and demand — and at the moment, we won’t see our market become more balanced unless there’s a sudden enormous influx of listing inventory.
Because the cost of borrowing money for a home is currently more accessible (low interest rates, generous mortgage amounts), many Buyers are eager to take advantage of this opportunity in the market and buy a home before finance rates change. Add onto this the factor of our rapidly rising real estate property values, causing Buyers to have heightened fears that if they wait to buy the home they can afford today, they won’t be able to afford it tomorrow.
So, as this relates to Sellers, why wait until later to list your home for sale when Buyers have the means to spend big now and are motivated to do so if things could change in the future? No one has a crystal ball to predict what the future will hold, so it’s probably best to take advantage of the current momentum to realize a profitable return on your real estate investment.
In our opinion, there’s no time like the present to either list your home or start putting pieces in place to list your home soon.
Curious to see how listings in your neighbourhood have performed on the market recently? Check out Our Sold Portfolio to learn more and see how your home might compare.
Why Is The Market Sometimes Slower In Summer?
If you’ve followed our Toronto and GTA real estate markets throughout 2021, you’ll have noticed that the strong winter and spring markets began to slow during the start of the summertime this year. In fact, the fast-paced market activity at the start of the year was really just a continuation of the hectic end to the 2020 market.
So, when this summer’s market activity started to die down towards the end of June and the beginning of July, many consumers began to grow concerned. Here’s what they saw:
- Average sales prices in certain areas of our report weren’t rising as rapidly (and in some cases stagnated)
- Homes weren’t receiving as many offers as compared to earlier this year
- The number of days listings spent on the market increased
- The number of total transactions decreased
- The inventory of listings on the market also dropped
This caused a lot of consumers to make some grand assumptions about the state of the market as a whole, predicting the Seller market’s bubble had burst and the skyrocketing housing economy would soon plummet.
Here’s what we saw; homeowners went on holiday and were more focused on enjoying typical summer leisure time as the COVID restrictions eased in the GTA.
No matter how vigorous the market is, summer holidays always tend to slow things down to some degree. And this summer in particular, the effect was two-fold considering many Canadians had finally been allowed to travel outside of the country again.
We also didn’t read as much into the market statistics either. Stagnating average sales prices doesn’t mean they’re decreasing — in fact, a modest or flat month-over-month increase at their current high price is probably beneficial to the overall health of the market. We took this as a sign that a sense of normalcy was returning, which is actually more conducive to coordinating transactions.
What’s also important to note is that compared to our year-over-year findings, property values are still much higher this year than in 2020.
The first step to every home sale is gaining an accurate estimate of your home’s current market value. Curious to know what your home is worth in today’s market? Find out for free by signing up for a no-obligation Home Evaluation here.
Why Does The Market Sometimes Pick Up In Fall?
Following the same theory as above, when Buyers return from their summer holidays and as the weather begins to cool off, they tend to have more time to focus on their homes. Normally, this means that consumers either devote more time to improving and selling their homes or to their new home search.
Therefore, the market tends to pick up slightly in the fall. However, does the increase in activity really mean you should wait until later in the year to list your home? Not in our opinion.
Although most homeowners are preparing their homes now in order to have them ready to hit the market in the autumn, there’s also a downside to that. Holding off until fall to list your home for sale typically means your listing will be up against greater competition. Waiting for more listings to appear before listing your house alongside them can be a little counterintuitive.
So, When is the Best Time to Sell?
At the end of the day, the best time really comes down to what a homeowners’ goals are, what their reasons for selling are, and if they’re contemplating a move elsewhere. At the Tanya Crepulja Team, we take a more personal, immersive approach with our clients to help them map out their real estate ambitions from a wider lens while discussing what the best plan of action for them would be from there.
For some, the best time to sell is now. For others, it’s later — it really just comes down to which factors will prove more influential for somebody’s life.
What do we recommend? Seek the advice of a Realtor® that has plenty of home selling experience in your local market. They’ll be up-to-date on all the market trends and developments and will be able to give you the best advice possible about when to list. Don’t follow a calendar, follow qualified advice.
There are a lot of factors that go into a successful home sale, all of which require a lot of thought and consideration. To save you the time and headaches, we’ve already done just that — learn more about our in-depth selling process in our Seller’s Guide here.
