We’re at that time of the year where only the serious buyers and sellers are investing time, energy and money into finding or selling a home. If you look at what is happening with the MLS figures, you see Active Listings dropping and Pending Sales dropping or flat.

These drops are normal this time of the year. Many buyers and sellers are focused more on the holidays and family than the real estate market. Maybe the media will take a break, too!

I overheard an interesting conversation a few days ago at Domenicos. Two women were discussing real estate and one mentioned waiting until April to list a house. According to her, April represents the top of the market and her thinking is to put her house on the market when things are the most active.

The only thing wrong with this thinking is that April is not necessarily the top of the market. If you look at the sales figures for 2007, April is probably the most active month for closed transactions, but what are the implications of that?

It means that those deals were signed in mid-February or March which means that if you wanted to catch the top of the market in 2007, you needed your house listed by late January.

Picking the top of the market is similar to the science used to determine the bottom of the market.

The time to buy or sell property is unique to each individual and family. Currently, interest rates remain at historic lows, financing is available, their is a wide choice of property on the market and there are too few buyers.

For sellers this means it’s price more than ever. For buyers it means more negotiating power.