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Every seller asks the same question, and the standard answer is to list in spring. I wanted to know whether that is actually true inside Windward, so I pulled every detached home sale in the neighborhood over the past five years. 431 closings.
The short version: the spring advice is directionally right and most people still act on it too late.
Sellers Do Not Get The Same Price In Every Month
The number that matters is sale price measured against the original asking price. It shows whether a seller held their number or gave ground.
| Month closed | Sale price vs. original list |
|---|---|
| January | 98.0% |
| February | 100.8% |
| March | 100.7% |
| April | 100.6% |
| May | 101.9% |
| June | 100.8% |
| July | 98.9% |
| August | 98.9% |
| September | 98.1% |
| October | 98.2% |
| November | 97.2% |
| December | 95.2% |
Homes closing in May averaged 101.9% of original list. Homes closing in December averaged 95.2%. That 6.6 point spread is roughly $66,000 on a million dollar Windward home.
February through June closings landed at or above asking. November through January closings did not. The pattern repeated in every year I looked at, including the slow ones.
The Strong Months Are Also The Fast Months
Homes closing in May took a median of 5.5 days on market. Homes closing in December took 17.4 days. Three times longer, for less money.
Price and speed moving together is what makes the pattern worth trusting. If the strong months were slow months, you could argue it was a mix effect. They are not.
Almost Nobody Lists When They Should
Half of every Windward listing over the past five years came out between April and July. Only one in five came out between January and March.
Here is why that is backwards. Windward homes go under contract fast, a median of seven days, and closing takes about another month after that. To land inside the strong February through June closing window, you list January through April.
The sellers who go on the market in January through March are selling into the best months of the year against roughly a third of the competition they would face in June. That is the whole insight. The good window is real, and the crowd shows up to it late.
What This Means If You Are Thinking About 2027
If you want to sell next year and you want to be in the strong window, the work happens in November and December. Walk the house, decide what actually needs doing, line up whoever is doing it, and go live in January.
That is not a sales pitch for calling me in November. It is just how the calendar works backward from the data.
One Limitation Worth Noting
The price and days-on-market figures are grouped by the month a home closed, while the listing counts are grouped by the month a home came on the market. That is why this walks from closing month back to listing month rather than treating the price table as a listing calendar. The bridge is a median seven days to contract plus roughly thirty days to close. One June 2024 record was excluded as an obvious data error.
This is a map of how the market behaves on average. It is not a prediction about your specific house, which depends on your street, your condition, and your price point.
Source: FMLS, detached home sales in Windward, January 2021 through July 2026.
Thinking about selling in Windward?
If you are weighing 2027, the conversation should happen in November or December so the house is ready to go live in January. I work North Atlanta full-time and bring 30 years of New York real estate experience to every deal. Reach out and I will walk your home and give you the honest version of what it will bring.
