In what month can we expect more listings to start showing up?

toatsmagoats

In my intro post I mentioned how my husband and I have been searching for a house since October.  We've started to see things pick up a bit in terms of the number of new listings we're sent each day, but nothing great yet and we're beginning to get antsy.

I know the market usually picks up in the spring, but are we talking March or closer to June?

AmyRob04

I am not a realtor but when we were looking for our house now we saw a ton of new listings in the spring, like April. We're planning to list this spring (FINALLY) and are hoping ot list in April/May; two of our neighbors also want to sell this spring and both told us, separately, that that's when they plan to list, too. So this should be fun, lol, people will just park at one end of our street and hit all three open houes at once.

toatsmagoats

AmyRob04:

I am not a realtor but when we were looking for our house now we saw a ton of new listings in the spring, like April. We're planning to list this spring (FINALLY) and are hoping ot list in April/May; two of our neighbors also want to sell this spring and both told us, separately, that that's when they plan to list, too. So this should be fun, lol, people will just park at one end of our street and hit all three open houes at once.

Good to know - thanks!  We've got ants in our pants waiting for houses to start coming back on the market.

And lol!  What town are you in?  Maybe I'll hit up your open house block party!

Melanie2003

april and may will be big months so that people can close and move after school ends, or that people are in new homes by the start of the school year.

bosha711

I think by next month it will definitely pick up & then spring is like official Open House season, so there should be lots more by then. GL!

mbcdefg

When we looked back in the fall/winter, we were told that that's the slower time (and therefore houses tended to be a bit cheaper). We bid on our house on August 1 and were moved in by October 1.

Question - are you looking in the same few towns, or have you thought about expanding your search? We found our current house when we went a little beyond the original search area ... like, 5 or 10 miles past where we thought we'd be buying.

toatsmagoats

mbcdefg:

When we looked back in the fall/winter, we were told that that's the slower time (and therefore houses tended to be a bit cheaper). We bid on our house on August 1 and were moved in by October 1.

Question - are you looking in the same few towns, or have you thought about expanding your search? We found our current house when we went a little beyond the original search area ... like, 5 or 10 miles past where we thought we'd be buying.

We've already expanded our search which has helped a bit and we've also become a bit more flexible in terms of our "must-haves."

ckcino

I think March/April are busier in terms of inventory vs May/June because people with school age kids will want to be settled by August and many people are taking vacations during the summer.  We've bought 2 houses and both were bought in mid march and closed in mid May.  When we listed our last house we listed in February and had an offer in March.