Does anyone else feel like we live in Colorado? Honestly, I cannot remember the last time that the weather has come up so often in conversation as it has in the last few weeks. And inevitably someone will say, “I bet this snow is really tough on your business.” But is it? How does the snow and cold weather affect real estate sales?
I looked into this question this week to see exactly how our excessive snow fall has impacted the rate of real estate sales in the Shawnee Mission School District. And the results may be surprising to some.
If you review the graph below you can see the number of homes that have gone under contract each week over the last six months. The time period is divided in half comparing the last twelve weeks to the prior twelve weeks. Although the number of homes, when you compare the two periods, is down 32% one must also keep in mind that the last twelve week period included the holiday season including the New Year.
With the exception of those few weeks, the number of homes to go under contract is really not that different from the activity that we saw last October, for example. If you look at the week of January 7, 2019 you see that 62 homes went under contract. That is very close to the sales numbers that we saw back in September and October 2018.
We have found that oftentimes it is assumed that real estate sales are slow in January and February. The numbers here do show that sales are slightly less than the prior months, but clearly homes are still selling and at a decent rate. One other thing to consider is that a seller this time of year will most likely have less competition so although overall sales are down, competition is down also. As I have said many times before, the best time to sell a home is when you have the least amount of competition.
If you or someone you know would like to beat the spring rush and are curious about the local market conditions, please reach out to our team today. We are happy to provide you with a free comprehensive market analysis.
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