Home Seller Alert: We’ve Found the Very Best Week To List Your Home in 2023

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Calling all sellers. Do you want a quick home sale at a higher price, even in this troubled real estate market? Then open your calendar to April, uncap a bright yellow marker, and highlight the week of April 16–22. This seven-day stretch was identified by Realtor.com® as the best week to list your home in 2023.

Just how much extra cash can a seller potentially pocket and how fast can a home go from a new listing to the closing table?

During the best week to list, home prices are expected to be $8,400 higher than the typical week—and a whopping $48,000 above early 2023 prices. Real estate listings are expected to receive 16.4% more views than in the typical week.

And while spring is generally considered prime selling season, demand is likely to surge in the third week of April, with homes predicted to move off the market 18% quicker than an average week.

“The best week represents a fine balance between less competition from other sellers (i.e., fewer listings), high potential sale prices, and a snappy time on the market,” says Hannah Jones, economic research analyst for Realtor.com.

The Realtor.com economics team identified this ideal selling week after carefully examining market behavior from 2018 through 2022. (Note that 2020 was excluded due to the atypical market conditions at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.) Competition from other sellers, how long a home spent on the market, views per property, list prices, and the likelihood of price reductions were factored into the analysis.

Few new listings is keeping the housing market competitive

During the height of the pandemic, it seemed like there was no bad time to list. Homes were selling crazy fast, often with multiple bids over asking prices.

Now? The once red-hot market is lukewarm at best.

Today’s buyers face three major hurdles that have them sitting on the sidelines: a shortage of homes for sale, high prices for the properties that are available, and rising mortgage rates that make monthly mortgage payments about 50% more expensive than just a year ago. (For the week ending March 9, the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.73%, according to Freddie Mac.)

The one thing buyers desperately need that could get them leaping over affordability hurdles to be first in line at open houses: fresh listings.

Just how desperate are buyers? New listings have fallen for 35 weeks straight, plummeting by 26% for the week ending March 4. And overall inventory is still 50% below pre-pandemic norms as well.

Many sellers are also buyers who are finding it hard to find a new home of their own and are grappling with higher rates. That’s held many back from listing.

So sellers willing to counter this pent-up demand will likely be rewarded as savvy buyers know not to dawdle if a good home hits the market.

“Buyers love fresh listings—those who have been following the market know that these great newer listings get sold rather quickly,” says Candice Krasovec, a real estate agent and certified home appraiser in Washington and Texas at Pierce County Appraisals.

Making your listing stand out

If every seller knows the best week to List a home, a hesitant homeowner might worry there will be a glut of homes on the market, further complicating competition.

Yet sellers who are reluctant to plant a “For Sale” sign on their lawn during the best week might want to consider a critical real estate fact: The market is about to enter prime time for homebuyers with families, who typically want to move well before the start of the new school year.

“New listings tend to pick up in the late spring and summer,” says Jones. “So entering the market during the best week gives sellers a great opportunity to catch the attention of buyers before listing activity is in full swing.”

And despite the recent sluggish market, homes that are turnkey and located in desirable locations continue to sell briskly and garner “substantial attention,” according to Jones.

The key takeaway, however, is for sellers to list a home at a well-thought-out price. And Jones advises sellers to get hyperlocal in their research.

“Sellers need to become familiar with their local market and work closely with a local agent to make sure their listing is attractive to buyers,” she says. “Buyers feeling the pressure of affordability are likely to be pickier, so a well-priced, well-maintained home is the ticket to drumming up big demand.”

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