houses, condos, or apartments. This is especially true with college students, particularly those who moved to a new city or neighborhood in the summer, before college classes start. It’s true that generally, during spring and summer the real estate market is more active, but that doesn’t mean it’s to the advantage of buyers. In the cooler months, buyers have the advantage of being able to pick and choose a home with less competition from other buyers, who tend to focus on spring and summer. Further, many sellers whose homes languished on the market in the summer often feel the pressure to sell before the holidays and the new year, which gives buyers even more of an upper hand in negotiating a good deal, according to Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist. NerdWallet.com analyzed home sales in the 50 most populated U.S. metro city areas using two years of data from Realtor.com, discovering two key findings that work to a buyer’s advantage: 1) Sale prices begin to drop in fall; and 2) Home sale prices are typically lowest in winter. “Market conditions during the fall and winter overall lend to great prices,” says Julie Haley. “Many…sellers will drop prices after the spring and summer seasons end, just trying to get their property sold with the given fiscal year. “These market attributes create an atmosphere in which property prices are highly negotiable during the fall and winter,” she continues, “and buying multiple bank-owned properties at the end of the fiscal year can create deep discounts.”
SALE PRICES BEGIN TO DROP IN FALL
While home sale prices don’t usually drop dramatically as summer turns into autumn, the final sale prices do take a significant and
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