Most homebuyers and sellers recognize that spring is the traditional home buying season, but according to National Realty News, there are psychological and financial motivations that generates a fall home buying season.
Although the real estate market is not as robust in the fall as it is in the spring, there is a different excitement that drives sales in autumn.
Walter Molony, economic issues media manager at the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., told National Realty News that based on seasonal observation on household buyer patterns, there is a higher ratio of first-time buyers and childless couples in the fall.
"Families with children time their purchases based on school-year considerations, so they peak in the spring and summer," Molony told National Realty News.
"Month-to-month median homes prices typically peak each June or July (purchases dominated with families with children buying larger homes) and decline each September (purchases of smaller homes by first-time buyers, etc.)."
ERA Real Estate, a global real estate franchisor, surveyed over 30,000 brokers and agents in their network about fall home buying patterns. This aimed to determine what drove real estate activities that season.
"A lot of people see Labor Day as the beginning of a new year, when the summer holidays are over and everyone goes back to school and back to work," Charlie Young, president and CEO of the ERA Real Estate in Parsippany, NJ, told National Realty News.
"The real estate market picks up because buyers who are planning to move want to be done by the holidays," Young added.
"Some people are also driven by the idea that they want the tax benefits of homeownership this year rather than last year."
According to National Realty News, the survey proved that 20 percent of buyers are emotionally driven by being in a new home for the holidays, while another 10 percent are motivated by tax benefits.
"People buy and sell homes mostly because of lifestyle needs that are present in every season," Young told National Realty News.
"Things like a job change, marriage, divorce, death, a growing family or a downsizing family are what drive a home purchase more than the season."
