March Is Madness: Why Data Shows It’s Also the Best Time to List

Age-old wisdom tells us that the best time for sellers to list a home is early in the year to benefit from peaking home sales in June, but how do you define “early” for your clients? January? Some point during the first quarter? Any time before June 1?

“Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate” co-authors Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries find the tried-and-true guidance vague and unhelpful. They analyzed the data and determined that the “magic weeks” to list a home — when it will sell quickly and for a premium price — are the last weeks in March.

Why late March?

Zillow data taken over a two-year period shows a sharp spike in website visitors reaching out to real estate agents in early spring, increasing in the third week of April and continuing into July. Making contact is the best indication of serious home buyers. Data confirms this by showing that at the end of June — nine weeks after the spike in April — home sales reach their highest levels nationwide.

So, for sellers, listing a home at the end of March hits the sweet spot — not too early and not too late. Homes added at that time will display at the top of the list for buyers who sort by listing date. Yes, there might be more homes to sift through — the ones that went on the market in late February and early March — but having already browsed those, serious buyers are on the prowl for fresh listings.

Why is sorting by listing date so important? Because these listings get seen, garner more offers, and sell faster and for more money — thousands more. Sellers who listed at the end of March 2011 and the end of March 2012 sold faster and for more than 2 percent higher than the average listing. Nationally, that meant a premium worth more than $4,000 over estimated home value. In some local markets, it meant even more.

Is it always late March?

Keep in mind that weather plays a factor in when the magic weeks occur. In warmer regions, you might see leads reaching out to you sooner, opening the window closer to the end of March. A severe or prolonged winter might see them holding off until the first or second week in April. But regional and weather-driven factors notwithstanding, the bottom line for your seller clients — regardless of where you live — is to put their homes on the market after the first deluge of new listings trails off.

Pro tip

Work with your sellers to claim their home on Zillow and update their home facts before they list. If their changes are significant enough, the Zestimate® home value — the starting point in determining a home’s value — will instantly change to reflect the update. Claiming a home is easy to do and once sellers make their changes, they'll receive a home report email to keep them up-to-date on their home’s Zestimate.

The perennial question of when is the best time to list a home has been answered: the last weeks of March. That’s after the sellers who waited for the tail end of winter to list their homes (late February to early March) but before home buyers start contacting you with an eye on a summer purchase (May and June). For sports fans, that’s between March Madness and The Masters. For foodies, it’s after apple season, but before the peaches come in.