Fall Market? (sales, fee, housing, prices)

[NatasNJ]

There seems to be 4 cycles of the real estate market which correspond to the seasons. (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)

The Winter seems to be the worst (in terms of # of listings, sales)
The Spring seems to be the best.

So what I really care about is when do people start listing for the FALL market? When can I expect those listings to appear? Sept?

[chet everett]

Basically fall starts when the "summer buyers" are locked in with school. In many places that is happening NOW -- if you register for school less than two weeks (or whatever the local cut off is...) some towns throw a little extra fee on top. The 'calendar fall' is months off, and in most parts of the country the real fall weather is way off too, but for purposes of real estate if someone needs/ wants to be in all enrolled for the start of school it is going to mean a race with closings...

The big questions about the economy have faded from the headlines, but many people still have some personal situations that are going to be on very long term drag on real estate. For those that both saw large declines in retirement savings and large declines in homes that they have been planning on tapping to get a retirement home the odds of them ever enthusiastically over committing income to housing would seem slim. Yet there are allegedly pockets of rising prices in many areas. That does not really comfort me...

The best we can hope for, in terms of real estate, might be some data on home improvement spending and other things like wash machines and dishwashers along with the traditional fall uptick in home furnishings sales. Whether people have moved into new homes over the summer or just adding / replacing things in their present homes if those numbers show a big improvement from the "wasteland" numbers that were rolling in with the late 2008 economic meltdown that will go a long way to convincing people that the life is getting back to normal.

[WhoFanMe]

We are in the fall market. School starts this month in much of the country and those buyers are under contract or closed. I suspect we'll see a tremendous rush of first time buyers in the next 60 days if the $8000 tax credit is not extended/increased.

[middle-aged mom]

I agree. This is the Fall Market.

That there are leftovers from last's year's fall market and this year's spring and summer markets is obvious, in most areas.

The so-called Fall market often excludes those with older school-aged children. The $8K tax credit thing, however has the potential to shake things up, in those markets attractive to first time home buyers.