The best time to sell your home in the Philly area? Right now, according to this analysis

If you’re a homeowner in the Philadelphia region who’s ready to sell but has been waiting, now’s the time of year to jump in, according to Realtor.com.

This week is the best time for homeowners in the Philadelphia metro area to put their homes on the market, according to an analysis by the online real estate marketplace. Now is when they’ll find the best combination of higher listing prices and buyer demand, a faster sales pace, lower chances of price cuts, and less competition from other sellers.

The typical seller could list their home for $18,000 more now compared to the beginning of the year. They can expect views per listing on Realtor.com to be 23% higher compared to an average week and for their homes to sell a week faster than average.

Nationwide, the best week to sell this year starts April 14. The real estate market tends to go through predictable seasonal cycles, so although the best time may shift by a couple of weeks, usually it’s going to be in March or April, said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.

“That’s when you start to see prices start to pick up, you see buyer demand start to pick up,” she said. “But seller activity is still relatively low. So that means for sellers who are looking to sell their home for a little bit more than average and see a relatively quick time on market, good buyer demand, without having to face a lot of other seller competition, that early spring timing works out each year.”

The Philadelphia region is on the earlier side compared to some other metro areas, mostly because new listings — meaning competition from other sellers — start to pick up deeper into the spring, Jones said.

For the area’s potential sellers, this week “is the best week, but the next month or so, according to the data, is nearly as good,” she said. “So for those living in Philadelphia who aren’t quite ready to sell a home starting on Monday, they can take heart that from [this] week through mid- to late April also looks really good for selling a home.”

» READ MORE: Philly-area homeowners are staying in their homes longer than most

The supply of homes for sale plays an important role in timing. According to Realtor.com data, active listings in the Philadelphia metro were down 60% in February compared to pre-pandemic.

“Buyers don’t have a lot of options,” Jones said. “And so if a seller is able to bring a well-priced, well-maintained home, really put their best foot forward in the market, they’re likely to see decent buyer demand and good attention on their home” at almost any time.

Ultimately, timing the local market can be difficult, and homeowners should do what makes sense for them personally.

And spring may be the best time overall for sellers, but if homeowners are focused on one metric more than others, the “best” time varies.

For example, the fastest selling pace tends to be later, around early summer, Jones said. Peak prices tend to come in mid-to-late summer. But summer also brings lots of seller competition.

“Depending on kind of which piece of the puzzle is most important to you, it can shift your timeline a little bit later,” Jones said. “But depending on what you’re looking for, pretty much April through the fall, you can find a good time to sell.”

» READ MORE: The Philly area doesn’t have enough homes available for low- and middle-income buyers

The best time to buy is usually in the fall, when “inventory is near its peak, but buyer demand has started to fall off, because kids are going back to school, people are kind of getting back into their fall routine,” Jones said.

But the early spring isn’t a bad time to purchase. Buyers start to have more homes to choose from, and they can get ahead of the surge of buyer demand leading into the summer.