A Guide to Understand the Best Time to Sell Your House

Timing is everything when home selling. Know the best time to sell your house, and you will enjoy the outcome of the sales.

Talking in general, most experts consider spring to be the best time for home selling - birds chirping, trees growing, and ice melting. If this is not the best time to sell your house, what could be!

However, things have changed after COVID-19. We already have lived spring'20. The real estate market activity was way too low during this period for 2020. According to the monthly stats highlights from CREA, the average sales price dropped to $490673, showing an average dip in house value of 9.88%.

But later that year, the market boosted with exceptional results. The actual sales activity surged by 32.1% in Nov'20 compared with sales activity of Nov'19. This deviation from the previous trends suggested that 2021 would be the year of new trends (understand the real estate trends for 2021 when planning to sell your home).

Best Time to Sell House - Pre-COVID

Home Selling in Spring

If you eliminate external factors (including coronavirus), spring is the best time to sell your house. Being an open season, spring is when people make most of their moves, including; relocating and selling/buying and renovating homes.

This is also the time when your house gives its best appearance, which provides you with an edge to make it look glossy by working on its curb appeal and increase your chances of selling the home quickly.

Selling Your House in Fall

After spring, fall is the second-best time to sell your property. The time is relatively short, so you need to be well prepared to sell your home during this time.

Long before the fall, start planning what you need to do to sell the house quickly and for a higher bid. Find out all the problems, get the cost appraisal against the expected sales value, and fix them right on time. We have a small piece of content highlighting the top 5 problems to fix before selling your house.

While 2 of the 4 seasons are relatively best considered to sell your home, it does not mean that summers and winters are considered the worst. People do buy houses during these seasons. Suppose you plan on selling your bungalow during any of the two seasons. In that case, all you need is to stay in touch with a local real estate professional near you. They will help you decide when to sell your bungalow.

Best Time to Sell House - Post-COVID

While the most prominent factor today when selling a house is COVID-19, there are other factors, including; interest rates, demographics, the economy, and government policies. Let us look into all of these factors to help in making better decisions:

Interest Rates

The government and the banking sector have been generous since COVID-19. The interest rates are low, giving more room for buyers to apply for a home mortgage.

The Bank of Canada announced the low-interest rate of 0.25% to remain till 2023. Whereas according to RateHub, the average fixed-mortgage rate over 10 years and a minimum down payment of 20% is 2.95%. While the historical trends show a mortgage rate of 3.5%+ during Jan'19.

This means that more buyers will be in the market till the interest rate stays low, allowing home sellers to sell their homes at a much faster pace.

Demographics

This factor is often overlooked. But it has a perfect example, as seen last year during the first wave of coronavirus. People stopped interacting, lost their jobs or businesses, and fewer migrants - all these factors affected the real estate market, making it one of the worst times the sector has ever witnessed.

However, the year-end proved to be suitable for the country's real estate market. Overall, things are getting better. People have learned to reduce their expenses, new immigrants would start entering soon, and income levels are also rebounding.

It means if not this spring, you could definitely sell your home during fall'21.

Economy

We all have seen the effects of the pandemic on the economy. Put it this way, low economy means low buying power, making sellers in the weak spot.

And as it is expected that the economy will continue catching up with its pace, more buyers would resume investing in real estate, giving home sellers an opportunity to resale their homes at a much faster rate.

Government Policies

Tax deductions and other subsidies are some significant factors boosting the real estate market. Both buyers and sellers could take advantage of these, empowering them to buy or sell a house.

Final Thoughts

Knowing the best time to sell your bungalow and other related factors would help you decide when to sell your property. The primary aim for home sellers is always to gain more while reducing the sales cycle.