Homes listed on a Wednesday sell faster, while homes listed on a Thursday are more likely to sell above list price than those listed on any other day of the week. If you’re a NYC homeowner wondering how to sell your home quickly and for maximum profit, StreetEasy has the answer.
Manhattan Homes Under $800K on StreetEasy Article continues below
Want to sell quickly? You’re in luck. After a year of window shopping, low mortgage rates, and plenty of inventory to choose from, New Yorkers are ready to buy. Pending sales are at record highs as of April 2021. The typical NYC home spent just 68 days on the market in April 2021. That’s about a month less than before the pandemic hit the city in full force. (In March 2020, the average time on market was 96 days.) In comparison, almost half of U.S. homes sold in less than a week this spring. For NYC sellers eager to shave time off their sale, like other sellers across the country, StreetEasy data reveals that it’s best to put their home on the market on a Wednesday.
On the other hand, some sellers are more interested in maximum profit than minimum time. For the greatest likelihood of selling at or above the list price, StreetEasy data shows that Thursday is the best day of the week to list. The typical NYC home closed at 90 percent of its asking price in April 2021, compared to 93 percent in March 2020. Sellers looking to increase their likelihood of squeezing in a bit more profit should look to list on a Thursday.
The Best Times to Sell Your Home in NYC
How to Sell Your Home Quickly
All else being equal, NYC homes listed on a Wednesday typically go off the market faster than homes listed on any other day of the week. That’s according to a StreetEasy analysis of listing and home closing data from 2019, the last full year of data that is reliable and consistent with pre-pandemic seasonal trends.
How to Sell Your Home for the Best Price
The day-of-the-week trends shift a day later when applied to sale price. NYC homes listed on a Thursday were most likely to sell at or above asking price, netting sellers the biggest profit.
When’s the Worst Time to List Your Home?
On the other side of the coin, data shows that Saturday is the worst day to list for a quick sale. Homes listed on Saturdays typically stay on the market for 9 days longer than homes listed on Wednesdays. Calendars fill up fast for busy New Yorkers, so it makes sense that listings coming on the market on a Wednesday would catch more eyes than those listed on a Saturday, with buyers already scheduling their home tours for the weekend.
Homes listed on Sundays were the least likely to sell at or above asking price. That makes this traditionally slow day the worst day of the week to list if you’re looking to make a profit. All of these are marginal changes, but when every day and dollar counts, marginal changes can still be meaningful ones.
Brooklyn Homes Under $800K on StreetEasy Article continues below
NYC’s Housing Market Is Unique
As we are in so many ways, NYC is different than the rest of the US when it comes to peak selling times. In 2019, surprisingly, homes listed the week of December 2 were the most likely to sell above ask in NYC. This diverges from the rest of the country, where the week of April 22 was the best time to list for a profit. Nationally, sellers face worse chances of maximizing gains after September.
This could be due to the fact that inventory tends to be lowest during the winter months. This gives buyers who are in a rush to buy during the holiday season relatively fewer choices than they have any other time of year. Price cuts are also least likely to appear on StreetEasy listings in December.
The Best Times to List Can Depend on Neighborhood
Real estate is local, and each area will have its own unique times for selling quickly and/or for more money. In the greater New York City metro area, for example, there is no virtually “best” time to list to maximize chances of selling above ask. Homes in New York rarely sell above ask to begin with. Thus, springtime in NYC is merely the best time to list for the lowest likelihood of selling below ask.
Within New York City, however, timing can differ across boroughs, as evidenced above. Seasonality can also differ based on submarkets. Midtown, Upper East Side, and South Brooklyn have some of the biggest seasonal changes in terms of their likelihood to sell above ask. In all three markets, spring was the worst time to list to maximize potential gains, while the fall throughout the holiday season was the best. Meanwhile, homes listed in the second half of the year in Northwest Brooklyn and North Brooklyn typically spend longer on the market compared to homes listed the first half of the year.
Takeaways for Home Sellers — and Buyers
This cannot be said enough: Timing the market is difficult, and ultimately, the best time to sell your home is when it makes the most sense to do so for you, based on your unique priorities.
Plenty of resources are available to help you navigate the intricacies of the real estate market. On StreetEasy, you can access your Owner Dashboard, which features your StreetEasy Valuation, an instant estimate of your home’s current value. And there’s also StreetEasy’s Expert Match, which shows you the most qualified agents available to help you sell it.
Queens Homes Under $800K on StreetEasy Article continues below
Work With a Pro, and More Tips on How to Sell Your Home
It’s always important to make sure you’re working with the best real estate agent for you. In addition, here are a few things to keep in mind for sellers considering listing their home soon:
- Speed vs. Profit: Which one is your priority? Think about whether you prefer to sell for the best price, or to get your home off the market as quickly as you can. If you are flexible on timeline but want to sell for as high a price as possible, there’s little need to try and game the market. Timing makes only a marginal impact on how likely a home is to sell above ask.
- Day of the Week vs. Month of the Year: Sellers in a rush should act now to avoid the winter slowdown. List that home this summer – on a Wednesday or Thursday! – and get it off the market before the cold season arrives.
- 2021 vs. Pre-Pandemic Years: 2021 might upend the real estate market’s typical norms. For sellers who have to wait until later this year to list, that may not be so bad. Pending sales have skyrocketed since January 2021, more than doubling pre-pandemic levels, signaling that demand for home buying is strong. With this bounceback of demand, the importance of seasonality in the housing market may be somewhat less pronounced this year.
For home buyers, keep in mind that the best time to buy is a personal choice. It depends more on the variety of inventory on the market and negotiating power than simply buying on the “worst day to sell.” A good strategy for buyers who want to have more negotiating power could be to target homes that have been on the market for longer than the median of 68 days, or even those listed over the weekend that are less likely to sell quickly.
Pro tip: Explore all your home selling options, from pricing your NYC apartment to finding a great agent, with these hassle-free tools by StreetEasy.
Disclaimers: StreetEasy Valuation is our estimate for a home’s market value and is not an appraisal. Use it as a starting point to determine your home value and monthly rental price.
StreetEasy earns a referral fee from successful Experts’ transactions, at no cost to the buyer or seller. Experts must meet StreetEasy’s standards of service and market expertise. Agents in our Experts Network have closed deals on homes similar to the seller’s or similar to homes the buyer is searching for. We measure their performance to make sure buyers and sellers get top-notch service.
