​Should you list your Austin area home for sale now?

Many people will tell you that the best time to sell your Austin area home is in the spring.  However, is now really the best time to think about listing your home for sale? Well, it may be and it may not be.  For many Austin residents, spring likely is the best time to sell your home.  However, depending on what type of home you have and where it is located, you may be better off waiting if you want to sell for the most money.
 
For homeowners in the City of Austin, spring probably is the best time to sell your home.  Over the past three years, the median home sales price for single family homes in the city limits has been highest in the summer months.  In 2015, the highest median sales price for these homes occurred in May at $360,000.  In 2016, the highest monthly median sales price was $377,470 in June.  Last year, we saw the highest median sales price occur in June again with the median sales price increasing to $407,500. ​

As you can see, single family homes in the City of Austin really do sell for the most money in the spring.  It’s not all about the price though.  If a quick sale is important to you, the spring market is great for that too.  The last column in the chart above represents the number of days a home is on the market before it goes under contract.  Over the past three years, the median days to sell in the spring months was almost always less than 2 weeks.
 
If you’re thinking you want to sell your Austin home for the most money in the least amount of time, now is the time to start preparing to sell your home.  Keep in mind that there is usually about a month of time from the date the contract is accepted until the closing date.  In order to close in June, you want to list your home in April or May. 
 
Now, if you are thinking about selling your condo in the City of Austin, now may not be the best time to sell.  City of Austin condos had the highest median sales price in December for both 2015 and 2016.  In 2017, the highest median sales price for condos in the city limits occurred in October when the median sales price was just under $305K.

If you don’t live in the city limits of Austin, spring may not be the best time for you to sell either.  While single family home sales in Travis and Hays County conformed to the spring is the time to sell trend, homes in Williamson County did not.
 
In Travis County, May was the month with the highest median sales price in 2015. In 2016 and 2017, June yielded the highest median sales price for single family homes in Travis County with sales prices of $350K and $370K respectively.  Hays County single family home sales showed the highest median sales price for 2015 in June with a price of S250K.  In 2016, the highest median sales price occurred in April.  Last July yielded the highest median sales price for 2017 with a median sales price of $270K.
 
Conversely, winter seems to be the best time to sell single family homes in Williamson County.  In 2015, the highest median sales price was $252,500 which occurred in December!  A month usually not associated with peak selling season.  In 2016, November yielded the highest monthly median sales price, and in 2017, December led again with a median sales price of $287K.  I should note that in 2017, the June median sales price was a close second with a median sales price of $286,713 and a much shorter number of days on market, 15 days compared to 40 in December. 
 
If you’re thinking about selling your home this year, you really need to look at the market activity in your specific neighborhood.  I’d be happy to run individualized reports for you; just contact me.  Alternatively, if you are mildly curious what your home is worth, click here for a quick home worth estimate.  ​