Fall to Winter in Roseville-Sacramento
As our Roseville Sacramento seasons are preparing for a new change, from fall to winter, are you thinking of selling your home? I am thoroughly enjoying the still-gorgeous colors of many trees in the area, along with the start beauty of those that have given up all their leaves.
It's a beautiful time of year wherever you live, but I have to admit, I especially appreciate it here in the Roseville Sacramento area as it's generally a pretty mild winter. Yes, we do get caught complaining about the rain and the frosts that occur! For example, it was 30 degrees at 7 am earlier this week and I was shocked I tell you – SHOCKED.
Until I talked to loved ones who live in one of the delightful northern states and heard their tales of trying to navigate a minor hill to get to school and sliding down twice in the snow and ice. Oh yes! I DO appreciate our Sacramento area winters!
Selling Your Home in Fall or Winter? Cons
If you are thinking about selling and have wondered if those colder seasons in this area make selling your home in fall or winter a good or bad idea, here is some food for thought.
To be honest, there are pros and cons about selling your home in the late fall or through the winter and there are experienced sellers AND agents on both sides of the question. Some of the cons include:
- Fewer buyers
- Fewer multiple offers which could mean not as great of a price as in summer when there may be many buyers fighting to get the houses available
- Too many holiday happenings going on
- It is chillier weather than the rest of the year
Sell Your House in Fall or Winter? Pros
Some of the pros to selling your home in fall or winter can include:
- It's especially easy to stage your home beautifully taking advantage of autumn and Christmas home decor – in and out (though do go easy – you always want to do minimalist decor so the buyer can picture themselves in the home (but do DE-decorate fairly soon – at least by New Year's. When I have taken clients out house-hunting in mid-January and they see a tree and other Christmas decorations up, you can sense a hesitation and a loss of interest in the home.”
- Although there are fewer buyers, the ones out house hunting are really serious
- It's chillier but it's probably not snowing, blizzarding, hurricaning, etc. – though I suppose you never know with the Godzilla of El Ninos lurking out there 🙂
Sacramento Metro Area Seasonal Statistics
Hmmmm…. Perhaps you are wondering how many homes are for sale right now and how many have sold? Using our Sacramento MLS – Metrolist, I just checked the statistics for Placer County, Sacramento County, and El Dorado County combined. The results were fascinating!
- Over 4000 homes in this greater Sacramento area are currently for sale (as of December 3, 2015)
- About 3600 homes are currently pending
- Since fall 2015 started, over 5000 homes have sold and closed escrow
- Compare that to the number of homes sold during the “hot” season (in more ways than one :)) of summer – over 8000
Yes, more homes definitely sold in the summer BUT there are still a large number of homes that sold this past fall.
How about winter? I checked the Sacramento Metrolist MLS figures for last summer (6/20/14 – 9/21/14) and found that over 7300 homes sold during that period. And guess what! For the winter period of 12/20/14 – 3/21/15, over 5000 homes sold then as well. And having quickly sold the lovely “Yard Crashers” home in one week in the midst of winter and working on other real estate projects, I found many people out and about looking for homes at open houses and more – even during the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Maybe so many businesses taking that week off even helps boost the numbers as more people have extra free time to house hunt then! 🙂
Set Your Priorities to Decide When to Sell
All in all, it's really up to you and your needs. If you need to sell your house now, it can definitely be a worthwhile endeavor. If you prefer to relax during the holidays, you might want to think about selling your home in later winter such as January or February. And if you're not in a rush and prefer waiting for, hopefully, multiple offers, that's certainly OK too.
Interest Rates Can Make a Big Difference
One thing to take into account as you think about selling your home at any time – interest rates. They impact buyers AND sellers. Buyers may have fewer options if the interest rates go up, because it's amazing how much more house you can buy with the current interest rates. Sellers may have fewer buyers as some will be priced out of your market if rates go up.
Will they go up? That's anybody's guess. I've heard experts say they are going up in a couple months for the last year! Obviously, those experts were wrong. But, of course, someday some experts will probably be correct and they will go up. Will it be December or January, like a reporter from KCRA suggested? Time will only tell. All I can tell you is that right now, they continue to be at an historic low, giving many more buyers the option to look at and perhaps make an offer on YOUR home, if you were to put it up for sale now.
Help For You When You Are Ready To Sell Your Home
When you DO decide to put it on the market, I hope you will give me a call or text at 916-768-0127 or email me at Kaye@KayeSwain.com. I'd love to help you with all your real estate needs and I love the fact that I have a great team with wonderful resources to help you at my Keller Williams Realty Roseville CA office. 🙂
Kaye
P.S. Not sure if you're ready to sell yet? Would you like a free home value estimate? Just email me at Kaye@KayeSwain.com for detailed analysis or you can also CLICK HERE for a quick estimate to get you started.
P.P.S. If you're thinking of buying a house in the Roseville Sacramento CA area and wondering if now is a good time to buy, #1 and 2 in the pros above should put a big smile on your face. Fewer buyers mean less competition for you to get the home of your dreams. YES – do give me a call now and we'll get started. Wouldn't a new house in escrow be one of the best Christmas gifts ever! 🙂
