St. Louis Homebuying: Is Fall Becoming the New Spring?

The Market Dynamics of Buying a St. Louis Home in the Fall and Winter

When you ask anyone when the peak season for buying a home is they will reply the spring. Traditionally, spring is the hot season for buying and selling, however, the fall and Holiday season brings new dynamics and opportunities.

St. Louis Buyer-Seller Patterns in the Spring and Fall

“Families with children time their purchase based on school-year considerations, so they peak each June or July (purchases dominated with families with children buying larger homes) and decline each September (purchases of smaller homes by first-time buyers, etc.)” says Walter Molony, with the National Association of Realtors.

In other words: Everybody is scrambling in the spring and early summer to nail down a house and get their kids into a school. Thus you always see a surge of buying and selling (and higher home prices) in the Spring.

What Drives the Real Estate Market in the Fall

30,000 brokers and agent were recently surveyed by ERA, a real estate franchiser, as to what motivates activity in the fall. Their findings:

People see Labor Day as the beginning of a new year, when the summer holidays are over and everyone goes back to school/work.
The market starts to pick up because buyers who are planning to move want to be done by the holidays.
Some buyers are motivated by having the tax benefits of home-ownership this year rather than next year.

The Effects on Sellers and the Opportunity for Buyers

Be honest, if you were a Seller, would you look forward to selling your home during the holidays? Probably not. Some sellers will opt to lower their price in the fall because they are afraid of missing the boat and being stuck in their situation going into the holidays.

So … how do you find these sellers and the homes that might fit into this situation? (keep reading)

Advantage to St. Louis Area Buyers

Right now a beautiful combination of factors awaits the home buyer:

1. Sellers who are bummed out they did not sell in the spring and the summer are more open to price reductions.
2. Buyer traffic (the number of buyers out looking at homes) drops in the fall meaning less competition amongst buyers as well as better prices.
3. Interest rates at historical lows.

How to Use Real-Time St. Louis Real Estate Data to Find Your Opportunity

Strategy: Find out which homes that have been on the market longer than usual in any given area.
How: Either call us and we will send you the data, or you can do some of the work yourself with our tools.

Example:

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How to Search for Homes Based on Number of Days on Market and Much More

Target Your Search
Finding Homes for You is a real estate company that only works for buyers. Over the years we have accumulated many tips, insights and tools that have helped make our buyers some of the most savvy and educated buyers in the market today. Call us at 636-532-4200 to chat how you can leverage off of our experience.