Why Mid-to-Late Spring is the Best Time to List a Home for Sale

• Homes listed in early May sell for more, on average, than listings at other times throughout the year — but homes listed in April sell the fastest.
• Homes listed on weekends are viewed the most on Zillow

The best windows to list your home and sell it in the shortest amount of time or for the most money, respectively, are slightly different. But in general, selling a home for sale in mid-to-late Spring offers the most benefits for sellers in most large markets nationwide, according to a Zillow analysis.

Spring is widely considered the kickoff to the home shopping season, and a Zillow analysis of the history and outcome of millions of home listings over the last several years confirms this conventional wisdom. For those looking to maximize proceeds from their sale, listings that hit the market in early May sold for almost 1% more than expected, or roughly $2,100 more on the nation's typical home. And that's not the only good news about selling in May. Homes listed during the year's fifth month tend to sell about 6 days faster than average. But if speed is all you care about, it's the fourth month of the year that can't be beat: Nationwide, homes listed for sale anytime in April sell one full week faster than average.

Like a gigantic flock of migratory birds, it seems that American home shoppers come back to bid on homes at predictable intervals. One likely explanation is that many home shoppers are tied to the academic calendar – as the weather begins to warm, a large swath of homebuyers have a narrow window in which to move and aim to close on a home by early summer, which means touring a bunch of homes in late spring.

For those looking to maximize profit, early May is the best time to list in 17 of the 35 largest metros in the U.S. But there are some differences across the country, which could be impacted by local market dynamics or even the weather — buyers don't want to drive to showings or open houses through the snow, if they can avoid it. The earliest is in San Diego, where the second half of March is the best time to list. The latest is in Cincinnati, where sellers see the greatest premium when listing their home in the first half of July.

Following this advice can bring the greatest returns in San Jose, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle. Homes in San Jose listed in late April bring a 2.1% premium, or $24,400 on a typical home there. Sellers in the Twin Cities that list in the suggested early May window can earn a 2% premium, or $5,700, while those in Seattle that list at the same time can earn a 1.8% premium, or $9,500.

If selling quickly is your top concern, then listing your home in late April is the way to go when selling traditionally. Homes listed then sell seven days faster and bring a $1,500 premium. Potential sellers in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Columbus have more time to prepare, as homes sell the fastest there in the first half of June. But if you live in San Francisco or Denver, you've already missed your window — homes in those metros sell the fastest when listed in early February.

But while Spring is undoubtedly the best time to sell by essentially every measure, when is the worst time to sell? If you try to sell your home in late December, your holidays will not be very happy. Buyers may be out doing any number of more-seasonal pursuits during this time, but whatever they're doing they are clearly not out home shopping: U.S. Homes listed in late December sell for 1.5% less than average, a seasonal penalty half again more severe than the second worst time (late November, 0.9% lower sales proceeds). The only silver lining to listing in December is that those homes only sell about 5 days slower than average. If speed is your goal, you cannot do worse than listing in November, when homes sell 12 days slower than average.

Buyer Interest Fades Quickly

New listings always get the most attention in their first two days on the market – home shoppers are on the lookout for fresh listings to consider, and savvy buyers often take advantage of email alerts or other notifications to check out every new listing that meets their search criteria. But after the honeymoon period of the first few days, interest quickly fades. Nationwide, the typical home listing only draws half as many views by day 5 as it did on the first day. And by the end of week 2, listings fall by half again, to one quarter of their initial traffic.

And this drop-off in demand has real consequences for sellers, because the longer a home lingers on the market, the less likely it is to be sold at or above list price.

But if listing attention in that first week is so critical, what can a seller do to maximize those all-important first looks from potential buyers? It turns out that a good bet is to list on a weekend. Homes first listed on a Saturday, followed closely by Sunday and then Friday, ultimately garnered more attention in their first week on market than homes listed in the middle of the week. The difference between the best and worst days is about 24%: that is, nationwide, homes listed on Saturdays get seen about a quarter more in their first week than homes listed on a Tuesday.

Sellers who want to take advantage of these findings should begin preparing early. Not starting the process sooner is the most common regret among sellers, in part because nearly three-quarters of sellers make at least one home improvement during the process, and at least a quarter of those said their projects took longer than expected.

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