Best Month to Sell a House: What the Sales Data Shows

What is the best month to sell a house?

On the data, the best months to sell a house are April through June, with May the single fastest month. From 2017 to 2025, May had the lowest median days on market (47.8 days), the most new buyers' contracts were pending in May and June, and median list prices peaked in June.

There is a second answer for sellers who care most about price over estimated value. ATTOM's April 2026 analysis of 52 million sales found the highest seller premium on homes that closed in March (10.7%), with April and May tied at 10.2%. Because ATTOM groups sales by closing date, those March closings were mostly listed and put under contract in January and February, when competing inventory is at its lowest.

So the data supports two windows:

• Early spring (contracts in February and March): less competition, highest premium over estimated value, but longer days on market than late spring.
• Late spring (listing April to June): fastest sales, most buyers under contract, highest asking prices.

The months to avoid if you have a choice are October through January. October has the most price cuts (17.6% of listings) and the lowest ATTOM premium (7.9%). January has the longest days on market (74.8).

Source: Realtor.com Housing Inventory Core Metrics via FRED: MEDDAYONMARUS, NEWLISCOUUS, PENLISCOUUS, MEDLISPRIUS (all last updated October 1, 2026); price cut share from the Realtor.com national history file (accessed October 8, 2026); new home sales from U.S. Census Bureau and HUD via FRED, HSN1FNSA (last updated September 24, 2026); seller premium from ATTOM, "ATTOM Analysis Finds Spring Remains the Prime Window for Home Sellers" (April 30, 2026). All averages and index values calculated by Paperless Pipeline from the published monthly data, which is not seasonally adjusted.

Home sales by month: when buyers sign contracts

Buyers sign the most contracts in late spring: Realtor.com's pending listing count peaks in June (500,734 on average) and May (493,988), and Census new home sales peak in March. January is the low point on both measures.

Two monthly series capture when buyers commit:

• Pending listings (Realtor.com). The count of listings under contract during the month. It averaged 328,308 in January and 500,734 in June from 2017 to 2025, a rise of about 53%.
• New home sales (U.S. Census Bureau). Census counts a new home as sold when a contract is signed or a deposit is accepted, not at closing, as NAR's own release notes explain. On average from 2015 to 2025, March accounted for 9.6% of a year's new home sales and November for 7.1%.

Existing-home closings, which NAR reports monthly, run about a month behind contracts. NAR's median days to close was 30 days in August 2026. That is why closings peak in early summer even though contract signing starts climbing in February.

Fallback table: the "Pending listings" and "Share of annual new home sales" columns of Table 1.

Days on market by month: when homes sell fastest

Homes sell fastest from April to June, when median days on market averaged 47.8 to 48.4 days from 2017 to 2025. They sell slowest in January (74.8 days) and February (66.1 days).

The curve is steep at both ends. Days on market drop by about 22 days between January and March as buyers return, then flatten through early summer. From July they climb steadily, about two to three days a month, until a jump in December.

Fallback table: the "Median days on market" column of Table 1, plus the excluded-years series above.

Removing the pandemic years does not change the answer. Without 2020 and 2021, May is still the fastest month at 46.7 days and January still the slowest at 75.0 days. For days on market by state and by year, see our companion page on how long it takes to sell a house.

List prices by month: when asking prices peak

Median list prices peak in June, at 3.9% above the annual average, and bottom in January, at 7.3% below it. Within the same year, June's median list price averaged 12.1% higher than January's from 2017 to 2025.

That spread was smallest in 2024 (7.4%) and largest in 2022 (21.4%), when prices rose fast through the spring. In a typical pre-pandemic year such as 2019, it was 10.6%.

Source: Realtor.com via FRED, MEDLISPRIUS; calculated by Paperless Pipeline.

A caution that matters: these are list prices, not sale prices, and the mix of homes changes by season. Realtor.com's own data shows listings get bigger in spring: in 2025 the median listed home grew from 1,791 square feet in January to 1,851 in June. Over the same months the median list price rose 10.0% ($400,995 to $441,000), but the median list price per square foot rose only 4.5% ($223 to $233). Roughly half of the spring jump in asking prices in 2025 came from larger homes coming to market. The pattern tells you when asking prices are highest, not that the same house would fetch 12% more in June.

Price cuts by month: when sellers have to cut

October has the highest share of listings with a price reduction, averaging 17.6% from 2017 to 2025, against 11.8% in December and 12.3% in February. Price cuts build from June through October as spring listings that did not sell are repriced.

In 2026 the pattern is running higher. Realtor.com counted 20.8% of listings with a price cut in September 2026, above the 17.3% September average for 2017 to 2025, and up from 19.9% in September 2025.

Source: Realtor.com Inventory Core Metrics, national history file, accessed October 8, 2026; averages calculated by Paperless Pipeline.

The practical lesson: a listing that misses the spring window and is still on the market in late summer is likely to face a price cut. Pricing correctly in March to May reduces the chance of chasing the market down in the fall.

Competition by month: new listings and active inventory

New listings peak in May (502,535 on average) and fall to a low in December (263,962), but total active inventory peaks in the fall, around September and October. That difference is the key to timing.

New listings measure how many sellers come to market each month. Active listings measure everything for sale, including homes that have been listed for months. Because spring listings pile up, active inventory keeps rising until October, when it averaged 10% above the annual mean. In February it sits about 12% below the mean, the lowest point of the year.

Source: Realtor.com via FRED, NEWLISCOUUS and ACTLISCOUUS, last updated October 1, 2026; index values calculated by Paperless Pipeline.

Competition is heavier than usual in 2026. Realtor.com counted 1,161,615 active listings in September 2026, the most for any September since 2019 and 5.4% more than in September 2025. NAR's months' supply reached 4.9 in August 2026, its highest level in over ten years. More supply makes timing matter more, because a listing that misses the spring buyers has more company in the fall.

For a seller, the sweet spot is when buyer activity is rising faster than competing inventory. That happens in March and April: pending listings are already near 100 on the index while active listings are still below 92.

Seller premium by month: what ATTOM's study shows

ATTOM's 2026 analysis found homes that closed in March sold for a 10.7% premium over their estimated market value, the highest of any month. May and April followed at 10.2%, and October was lowest at 7.9%.

ATTOM looked at more than 52 million single-family home and condo sales from 2015 through 2025. For each day, it compared the median sale price of homes closing that day with the median automated valuation model (AVM) estimate for those homes at the time of sale. It counted only days with at least 10,000 sales, which left 362 calendar days, excluding January 1, July 4, November 11 and December 25.

Source: ATTOM, "ATTOM Analysis Finds Spring Remains the Prime Window for Home Sellers", April 30, 2026. Sorted by premium, as published.

The top single days in ATTOM's 2026 study were February 29 (15.3%), May 26 (14.7%) and March 31 (14.1%). February 29 only exists in leap years, so it rests on far fewer sales than other dates. Treat single-day rankings as curiosities rather than targets.

One detail in ATTOM's release is worth reading closely. The headline text describes homes "listed" in March, but the methodology says the premium is calculated for "homes with a purchase closing on that day". On the methodology, a March figure describes March closings. With NAR's median 30 days to close and spring days on market of about 50 days, those homes typically listed in January or February.

Best time to list vs best time to close

To close in the peak months of May and June, list in March or April. Average days on market in those months (52.9 days in March, 48.4 in April) plus NAR's 30-day median days to close puts a closing about 11 to 12 weeks after the list date.

This is where most "best month" advice goes wrong. It names a month without saying whether it means the month you list, the month you sign a contract, or the month you close. The data answers differently for each:

Source: Days on market from Realtor.com via FRED (MEDDAYONMARUS), averaged 2017 to 2025 by Paperless Pipeline; days to close from NAR REALTORS Confidence Index, August 2026. Estimates are illustrative: they apply the list month's median days on market to the whole marketing period and assume a 30-day escrow.

The planner shows why sellers who list in March often do well on both measures. They come to market when competing inventory is still low (active listings index 89.3), go under contract as buyer activity climbs, and close in the strong May and June window.

The worst months to sell a house

On these measures, the weakest months are October through January. October has the most price cuts (17.6% of listings) and the lowest ATTOM premium (7.9%); December has the fewest new buyers' contracts outside January; January has the longest days on market (74.8).

That does not make winter hopeless. December and January have the fewest new listings of the year (index 63.0 and 83.2), so a well-priced home has less direct competition. ATTOM's data even shows December and January closings earning higher premiums (9.1% and 9.6%) than any month from July to November. Sellers who must move in winter are not at a large disadvantage on price; they mainly face a longer wait.

2026 so far: how this year compares

2026 has followed the usual seasonal shape, but with slower sales and more price cuts than the long-run average. Median days on market bottomed at 52 days in April and May 2026, about four days slower than the 2017 to 2025 averages for those months.

Source: Realtor.com via FRED, MEDDAYONMARUS, NEWLISCOUUS, PENLISCOUUS, MEDLISPRIUS, last updated October 1, 2026.

Three points from 2026:

• Pending listings peaked in May at 508,202, the highest May count since 2022 (562,265).
• New listings peaked in April (477,118), a month earlier than the long-run pattern. Through September, new listings were 0.8% above the same months of 2025.
• The median list price peaked in June at $430,000, in line with the usual seasonal high, and had eased to $419,250 by September.

What 2027 might bring is covered in our housing market predictions for 2027.

Is the spring advantage shrinking?

The gap between January and the spring low in days on market has narrowed from 29 to 33 days in 2017 to 2019 to 23 to 26 days in 2024 to 2026. Spring is still clearly the fastest season, but the edge over winter is smaller than it was before the pandemic.

Source: Realtor.com via FRED, MEDDAYONMARUS, last updated October 1, 2026; gap calculated by Paperless Pipeline.

The narrowing comes mostly from winter. January medians of 69 to 78 days in 2024 to 2026 compare with 81 to 88 days in 2017 to 2019, while spring lows (45 to 52 days in 2024 to 2026) are similar to the 2017 to 2019 lows (51 to 55 days). Three years is a short run, so treat this as a pattern to watch rather than a settled change. For sellers, it means the cost of listing outside spring is a little smaller than the older averages suggest.

What the data does and does not prove

The data shows clear seasonal patterns in speed, supply and asking prices. It does not prove that listing in a given month will make any particular home sell for more. Four limits are worth stating plainly.

1. List prices are not sale prices. Realtor.com's median list price reflects which homes are listed, and the spring mix includes larger homes. In 2025, list price per square foot rose 4.5% from January to June while the median list price rose 10.0%, so a June peak is partly a composition effect.
2. ATTOM's premium compares sale prices with automated valuations. If AVMs lag rising prices in spring, measured premiums will look larger in spring. ATTOM's study shows a consistent pattern, but it measures sale price relative to a model estimate, not the gain an individual seller would get by waiting.
3. Averages blur local markets. National monthly averages combine markets with different climates, school calendars and buyer pools. State and metro patterns can differ from the national curve.
4. Recent years were unusual. 2020 and 2021 distorted the seasonal pattern. We show averages with and without those years; the best and worst months do not change, but the size of the swing does.

The safest reading: if a seller can choose, listing in March or April gives the best combination of buyer demand, low competition and time to sell before price cuts become common. Price and condition still matter more than the calendar.

What seasonality means for brokerages

Spring compresses a large share of a brokerage's year into a few months: pending contracts run about 53% higher in June than in January, and they all need to close about 30 days later. That workload lands on agents, brokers and transaction coordinators at the same time.

Practical planning points from the data:

1. Staff for May to July closings. Contracts peak in May and June, so closing activity peaks a month later.
2. Front-load listing paperwork in February and March. New listings rise about 17% from February to March on the long-run average (index 91.1 to 106.8).
3. Plan commission cash flow by quarter. With closings concentrated in late spring and summer, brokerages can expect uneven commission income through the year. Our commission software features page shows how brokerages track it.

A transaction management platform helps a brokerage absorb the spring surge because every file, checklist and deadline sits in one shared system rather than in individual inboxes. Our guide to managing critical real estate transaction dates covers the deadline side in detail.

How we compiled these statistics

We used primary data only and opened every source between October 1 and October 8, 2026.

• Realtor.com Housing Inventory Core Metrics (via FRED). Monthly national series for median days on market (MEDDAYONMARUS), new listings (NEWLISCOUUS), pending listings (PENLISCOUUS), active listings (ACTLISCOUUS) and median list price (MEDLISPRIUS), July 2016 to September 2026, not seasonally adjusted, last updated October 1, 2026. Price reduction share comes from Realtor.com's national history file, accessed October 8, 2026. We averaged the nine full years 2017 to 2025 (Realtor.com data begins in July 2016).
• U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, New Residential Sales (via FRED). New one-family houses sold, not seasonally adjusted (HSN1FNSA), monthly, last updated September 24, 2026. We averaged each month's share of annual sales for the eleven full years 2015 to 2025. Census counts a sale when a contract is signed or a deposit accepted.
• ATTOM. Seller premium by closing month and best days, from ATTOM's analysis released April 30, 2026, covering more than 52 million single-family and condo sales from 2015 to 2025.
• NAR. Median days to close (30 days, August 2026) from the REALTORS Confidence Index released September 10, 2026.

Method notes: An index of 100 equals the average for that calendar year; each month's index is averaged across years so that long-run price growth does not distort the seasonal shape. "Median days on market" values in our tables are averages of Realtor.com's monthly medians. We did not apply seasonal adjustment because the seasonal pattern is the subject of the analysis.

Caveats: Realtor.com revised its methodology in November 2021 and September 2022; FRED notes that current files apply the new method to all history. Realtor.com's new and pending listings cover single-family and condo/townhome listings on its platform. NAR does not publish not-seasonally-adjusted existing-home sales by month in its public release, so we use Realtor.com pending listings and Census new home sales as the monthly contract measures.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market in the United States (MEDDAYONMARUS), source Realtor.com, last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDDAYONMARUS
2. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, Housing Inventory: New Listing Count in the United States (NEWLISCOUUS), source Realtor.com, last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NEWLISCOUUS
3. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, Housing Inventory: Pending Listing Count in the United States (PENLISCOUUS), source Realtor.com, last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PENLISCOUUS
4. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, Housing Inventory: Active Listing Count in the United States (ACTLISCOUUS), source Realtor.com, last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ACTLISCOUUS
5. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price in the United States (MEDLISPRIUS), source Realtor.com, last updated October 1, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDLISPRIUS
6. Realtor.com Economic Research, Inventory Core Metrics, Country History (CSV), through September 2026, accessed October 8, 2026. https://econdata.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Reports/Core/RDC_Inventory_Core_Metrics_Country_History.csv
7. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, New One Family Houses Sold: United States (HSN1FNSA), source U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, last updated September 24, 2026. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HSN1FNSA
8. ATTOM, "ATTOM Analysis Finds Spring Remains the Prime Window for Home Sellers", April 30, 2026. https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/home-sales-prices/2026-best-days-to-sell-a-home/
9. National Association of REALTORS, August 2026 REALTORS Confidence Index Survey, September 10, 2026. https://cms.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/2026-09/2026-08-realtors-confidence-index-09-10-2026.pdf
10. National Association of REALTORS, "NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 2.0% Decrease in August", September 10, 2026 (source for months' supply and for the note that Census new home sales are based on contracts or deposits). https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-existing-home-sales-report-shows-2-0-decrease-in-august