As weather heats up, so does Orlando home-selling market
“As spring goes a long, prices get a little higher, typically culminating in June or July.” Chuck Valence of Valence Realty Group in Maitland
If the hot housing market and the rising temperatures outside are inspiring you to sell your house, this might be
the perfect season to get the best price, according to experts.
Real estate website Zillow reported homes in Orlando that listed in late April can sell for 2.6% more than those listed
at other times. For the typical home, that can translate into an extra $9,600.
“Spring and early summer is the best time historically,” said Chuck Valence of Valence Realty Group in Maitland. “As spring goes along, prices get a little
higher, typically culminating in June or July.”
Sharon Sullivan of Altamonte Springs-based Florida Home Team Realty, however, says what every gardener in the state knows: Florida’s sunny season is year-round.
“We have to be geographically competent,” she said. “There’s really no bad time to put a house on the market here.”
For Sullivan, who’s sold real estate in Florida since 1981, the sooner in a year a listing can get up, the better.
“They’re too late in April,” she said. “You want to get people when they’re done with Christmas. They’ve really got nothing going on in January to impede buying a house.”
Home prices have skyrocketed in metro Orlando over the past
year as an influx of new residents following the COVID-19 pandemic has brought inventory to historic lows.
In March, the median home price hit a record of $361,000, according to
the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
“It’s not a real market right now,” Sullivan said. “It’s driven by other factors that are global.”
One issue has been the emergence of large institutional real estate investors coming in with cash offers.
“I don’t think the time of year matters to those guys,” Valence said. “For them, it’s just a numbers game.”
With 28 years of experience in the field, Valence says the state still has some cycles to be aware of, such as the slowdown that usually comes around the beginning of the school year when families are settling in.
“When we’ve got someone selling by no later than July, I would usually say June,” he said. If people wait too long and they get a sale that falls apart, “then you’ve got to put your house back on the market in August when the slowdown begins.”
The worst time to put a house on the market is around the holidays. Zillow found that homes listed in late December took as much as a 3.3% reduction in price, or $12,200 on the average home.
That means it could be a great time to be a buyer.
“The best time to get in is after competition cools down,” Valence said. “If you can wait until the fall or holiday time, that’s usually a good time.
“Don’t expect prices to come way down,” he cautioned. “It’ll just be fewer bidding wars.”
Sullivan says the process for becoming a serious buyer means getting qualified for a mortgage, which she advises buyers not to wait on.
“Before you even meet with an agent, meet with a mortgage broker,” she said. “It’s not seasonal; it’s personal, really.”