I often hear from home sellers they don’t want to sell their home in the winter because no one buys homes in the winter.
Not true. Granted, there are fewer buyers in the winter, but there is also less competition for those buyers, and the buyers are more motivated.
Over the years, I’ve closed homes through the winter months all over town.
How Many Homes Sell in the Winter?
Since the typical home closes about 4-6 weeks after it goes under contract, take a look at the monthly closed sales below and figure the December sales probably went under contract in October or November.
While this means you need to factor in time between contract to closing, it’s a better way to understand what really happened than looking at newly accepted contracts…since some homes that go under contract don’t end up closing.
Chesterfield:
Yes, the summer months have more sales than the winter months. But there are still over 35 sales every month in Chesterfield other than 1 month since the beginning of 2018.
While there are more home sales in the summer, the competition is so much lower in the winter. A well priced home will often get more interest from ready buyers in the months when buyers don’t see a flood of new homes coming on the market every day. Since they worry about when the next good home will come along, they are eager to make an offer.
Creve Coeur:
While May, June and August in the last couple of years had the most sales in Creve Coeur, there were still plenty of sales in the other months.
February homes sales prove the point. The 5 homes that closed in Febuary 2018 and the 8 homes that closed in February 2019, probably went under contract in mid-late December or early January.
Kirkwood:
While it may look like the sales are so much lower in Kirkwood than in Chesterfield in the winter vs the summer, there are actually about half the sales in many of the winter months. That’s actually a higher % than you get in winter vs summer in Chesterfield.
Webster Groves:
In Webster Groves, there were 7-10 monthly closed sales in the winter, vs 15-18 each month in the summer. Considering the high number of buyers who want each home in the summer, buying in the winter actually gives buyers more of a chance to get the home they want.
And sellers don’t need to work about not selling if they price their house to match the features and condition.
Wildwood:
Wildwood is one of those areas you would expect sales to drop during the winter, since so many buyers are want to move while school is out.
But even in Wildwood, homes sell in the winter.
Bottom Line:
Most homes in the St. Louis region close in about 30-45 days. Given that few buyers are looking at homes during the last 2 weeks of December, it’s not surprising that the January numbers are lower than December.
But even then…over 700 homeowners in St. Louis County SOLD their home in January.
Another 150 sold in January 2019 in St. Louis City, and 300+ sold in St. Charles County in January 2019. That’s OVER 1,100 homeowners who likely went under contract in December and closed in January.
If you are ready to sell, go ahead and get your house on the market. If you price your house appropriately for the market and follow your agents advice for staging and repairs, there is no reason that you need to wait until spring to list your home.
