Did you know? Sunday, March 20 2016 marked the official start of the spring season this year! If you’re a regular blog reader of mine you’ll know that we’ve already given you a number of Spring-related blogs about getting your home ready for the Spring season (whether or not you’re ready to sell your home) that include, most recently – How To: Get Your Home Ready for Spring. To see additional Spring-related blogs and tips about the other seasons, simply click on the Seasonal Tips blog topic on the right hand side of the screen. For now though, let’s focus on the Spring selling season.
While some of our previous seasonal blogs give some great reasons as to why you should buy or sell a home in the winter and other seasons, Spring is typically seen as the busiest time for real estate. Spring is typically the busiest for real estate for a number of reasons, some of which include:
- the weather is finally starting to get nicer (especially for Pittsburgh!)
- kids are on their way out of the school year
- the days are longer, which allow more time for seeing homes
- and people are winding down from the busy holiday seasons.
If you still aren’t convinced that Spring is a good time to buy OR sell your home in the greater Pittsburgh area, hopefully these additional reasons will convince you:
- Home Sale Increases
Our source, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (the PPG) provides a great chart that shows a significant jump in home sales from the winter months (October, November December) to the Spring months of March, April, and May. The most recent jump in 2015 indicated that home sales in the Winter months were at 5,147 and the Spring months were at 9,233!
- Increase in Sold Prices
The PPG also shows that the average sales price has also increased from December ($149,618) to April ($177,515). Our recent blog – March 2016 Pittsburgh Real Estate Update also supports this statistic The chart in that blog indicate that the average sales price just from December to January show an increase. Just look at some of these examples:
- Peters Township – December ($429,498) -> January ($558,227)
- Bethel Park – December ($187,057) -> January ($195,225)
- Less Real Estate Trend Shifts
Other cities that are warm all year round, like Phoenix and Miami, for example, might see a strong winter real estate market but might not. For these cities, it really depends on how the weather is in the northeast. While the weather in the greater Pittsburgh area can be unpredictable at times, it’s almost always cold and covered in snow in the winter months and warming up by Spring. Thus the real estate trends remain consistent – it’s typically a little slower in the winter and picks up in the Spring.
- Steady Mortgage Rates
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (the PPG) provides a great quote to describe the Pittsburgh Real Estate Spring Market,
“Spring home shopping in the Pittsburgh region has been strong in recent years in part because of pent up demand after the recession and lower interest rates.”
It’s true! While it was predicted that 2016 would see an increase in mortgage rates, they’ve actually remained low in Pittsburgh. The PPG gives the example of how a homeowner with good credit history can receive a 30-year fixed rate mortgage for as low as 3.58%! This makes it an excellent time to buy a home for all readers that are weighing their options this spring because it’s predicted that mortgage rates still might increase throughout the rest of 2016.
- Quick Home Sales
However, if you are planning to buy a home this Spring, it’s important to act quickly! The PPG gives a great example of how an agent was interested in a home for their prospective buyer that came on the market on a Wednesday and the home sold before they could even show it that following Saturday! You’ll recognize a similar trend with our homes for sale if you follow us on Facebook (or any of our social media channels) or have been keeping tabs on our new listings.
If you’ve been “on the fence” about buying or selling a home this Spring in Pittsburgh, hopefully this blog has pushed you into jumping into the Pittsburgh Real Estate Market. If it has we hope you’ll contact The Jim Dolanch Team because we have experienced agents on hand that are always willing to go the extra mile to give you your dream home!
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I pride myself on being your number one resource with everything ranging from real estate news and information, local Pittsburgh area events and statistics to seasonal tips like this blog post!
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or need any more advice on listing your Pittsburgh home.
Until Next Time,
Jim