When Is the Best Time to Sell a House in Austin?

Deciding the best time to sell your Austin, Texas, home can be tricky. As it’s home to the University of Texas’s flagship campus and well-known tech startups and serves as an anchor city for employers, academics, and football fans, Austin’s vibrant scene introduces multiple factors that affect the home selling timeline.

So, how do you determine the best time to sell a house in Austin?

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This article will help you demystify the elements playing into your home sales experience and nail down the ideal time of the year to sell your property. We will round up the factors that affect the local market, so you’ll understand the months that are optimal to prep, stage, list, and sell your home for its highest possible list price and in the quickest time to close.

According to aggregate data from reliable real estate websites, homes spent an average of 86 days on the market, selling for a median sales price of around $564,000. What is the best time to sell your property in Austin? Read on for our tips, tools, and expert insight on how to sell for the highest profit or on the quickest closing in America’s weirdest city.

What is the best time to sell a house in Austin?

Top local Realtor® Jaymes Willoughby has more than 40 years of experience and has seen the city evolve from a cowtown capital city to the Silicon Valley of the Southwest.

“It has changed the dynamics here,” he says of the demographic shift and its impact on the real estate market. “Not only do we have the University [of Texas] and other universities nearby,” he notes, but the high-tech job market has drawn in an educated populace.

“We have a pretty analytical demographic here, so when they make a decision, they pursue it [as] if it’s like a business within their personal lives.” This angle directly impacts his advice to sellers looking to prepare their homes for the market at optimal times throughout the year.

To give an overview of how data plays into this picture for you as a seller, consider whether your primary objective is to snag a higher price or close quickly — this has an impact on how you’ll want to time your staging and sale.

Listing homes in December and closing in March traditionally garnered the highest sales prices, as reflected in the HomeLight’s Best Time to Sell Calculator data.

Willoughby says a traditional spike in closings toward the end of the year points to the fact that many sellers like to end the year and finish transactions by December 31. Because some buyers are similarly eager to close before the year’s close, competition for homes can drive sales prices up.

The best time to sell in Austin for speed, however, falls in a different season. Early February is also a smart time to list, with the potential to close in May: “From April to mid-May, that’s another really good time block, because you’re after spring break, but before school lets out.”

If you identify as a “summer seller,” he says, listing your home in the spring can ensure closing on the timeline you prefer.

Let’s examine real estate transaction data for Austin and some surrounding cities to determine the best time to sell your home, whether you want to sell for the most money or sell fast.

Best times to sell a house in Austin

Best times to sell a house in Pflugerville

Best times to sell a house in Cedar Park

Best times to sell a house in Leander

Best times to sell a house in Lakeway

Best times to sell a house in Georgetown

Best times to sell a house in San Marcos

All charts based on historical home sales data, 2014-2024

To see other home selling trends in your city, check out our Best Time to Sell Calculator. But if you’re looking for the most precise estimate about when to list your home, talk to a top-performing Austin real estate agent.

4 key selling trends in Austin

1. The tech industry

Nicknamed “Silicon Hills,” Austin is home to many tech startups and regional offices for large companies in the industry. Apple, Dropbox, Dell, and Facebook are just a few companies with a presence in this city, so key into big business announcements when they come along. Expansions, layoffs, and other staffing changes could quickly sway the local real estate market.

2. ‘The Resolutioners’

Austin’s population is highly educated. This demographic is consistent in surrounding suburbs, which affects the market, says Willoughby. He points to a group of homebuyers who he calls “the Resolutioners.”

These shoppers, who’ve made a New Year’s goal of buying a home, hit the streets (well, we mean the web — but more on that later) at the beginning of the year. The trend is reflected by an uptick in traffic at local real estate offices right after the holidays.

“A lot of sellers aren’t thinking, ‘I’m going to put my home on the market in January,’ but a lot of buyers are thinking, ‘now is a good time to buy.’” With lower average inventory and motivated buyers who are shopping, Willoughby indicates that January is a good time to consider listing.

3. The K-12 academic school year

A key moving part of many real estate markets in the United States is the school calendar, and Austin is no different. A traditional school year in Texas brings students back to class in late August.

As Willoughby puts it, families looking to follow the traditional school year and become “summer sellers,” listing just after spring break in April. Doing so remains a good bet for efficient summer sales.

4. University calendars

The University of Texas’ main campus in Austin impacts the local population, whether prospective buyers are directly affiliated with the university or not. With around 40,000 undergraduate students, approximately 10,000 graduate students, and around 3,000 teaching staff and faculty, the university calendar affects the rhythm of this capital city.

The university calendar typically fires up in mid-to-late August and slows down in December. Classes recommence in mid-January for the spring semester and wind down in May.

Other colleges and universities in Austin proper include St. Edward’s University, Concordia University Texas, Hutson-Tillotson University, and the Gemini School of Visual Arts. Sizable campuses nearby include Texas State University in San Marcos and South University Austin in the suburb of Round Rock.

In addition to higher education serving as a major employment sector in the area, college students too are a target audience for certain types of property investments (condos, for instance).