It’s about to be the best time of the year to sell a home in the Philly area, according to Zillow

Local homeowners who want to sell their properties for the most money should get ready to list.

Last year, the first half of June was the best time to sell a home in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, according to an analysis of 2024 home sales by Zillow.

Homes listed for sale during those first two weeks of June sold for 2.2% more than at any other time of the year. For the region’s median-priced home, that was $8,100 more.

Nationwide, listing homes for sale in the last two weeks of May gave sellers the biggest price boost last year. Those homes sold for 1.6% more, or $5,600 for the median-priced home.

Timing the market is difficult. Most sellers put their homes on the market when it makes sense for them and can’t wait for a specific time. And homeowners may have different priorities, such as wanting to sell as quickly as possible.

The best time to list a home for sale also depends on housing supply and buyer demand at the hyperlocal level. Fluctuating mortgage interest rates also play a role.

“Buyers who are on the edge of qualifying for a loan jump in and out of the market depending on what’s happening with rates,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow, said in a statement. “When rates fall, more buyers rush in, putting upward pressure on prices, which could happen at any time of year.”

Anthony Lee, managing partner and real estate agent with Realty ONE Group - Focus, based in Philadelphia, said his experience and data show that June tends to be a good month for the region’s sellers who want top dollar for their homes.

“You’re already walking into additional profit, just because it’s June,” said Lee, who works in Philadelphia and across the Pennsylvania collar counties.

It’s a unique month, he said. For families with school-aged children, “everybody’s on the clock, because they want to be in the new school district before school starts up in August.” Buyers and sellers want to make moves before summer camp and vacations. A lot of leases tend to expire around this time of year, too, which can spur first-time buyers to act now.

In some neighborhoods, demand for homes is still as high as it was during the pandemic and sellers can get away with not doing any work on their homes, Lee said. “But for most areas, you do have to put in a little bit of TLC” in order to get the best price.

In Zillow’s analysis of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, the best time to list for the highest prices last year came as early as the second half of March in places such as San Diego, Seattle, and Austin, Texas, and as late as the second half of November in Phoenix.

The metro area with the highest price premium was San Jose, Calif. Last year, sellers who listed their homes in the second half of March sold their properties for 5.3% more, or $93,200 for the median-priced home.

Lee tells clients to get into the market when it makes sense for them, since timing the market is not an exact science. No matter the time of year, he said, “somebody’s always looking to buy and sell real estate.”