Eastside Market Seasonality

Our market has seasonal fluctuations, and we are in the crazy part of the cycle right now in January. What happens is January 1^st, buyers want to buy and sellers want to sell. A buyer can simply jump online, or in the car, to start shopping; whereas, it takes a seller 4 to 6 weeks to list their home. This creates a surge of new buyers without much new inventory. Couple that with historically low inventory and you get a strong sellers’ market. To those looking to buy, keep the faith and know that more listings will come. Typically in late February, after mid-winter break, there is a mini-surge of inventory followed by a steady increase of new listings. While the pandemic has thrown off the normally quiet 4^th quarter trend, I’m confident that we will see more and more inventory in the upcoming months.  

After the first quarter, buyer demand and new listings start to balance, typically around April or May, causing appreciation to level-off. Then, in late July through early September buyer demand slows a bit, as most buyers are settled for the upcoming school year or they are taking vacations. Then, in mid-September there is another mini-surge of buyer activity with demand slowing as we approach November, ending with the last two months of the year being fairly quiet. That said, real estate sells year around, and the pandemic has thrown off these trends, so who knows. But, I am confident that the normal first quarter trend will occur and we will see more listings come on the market.