4 Good Reasons to Buy a Home During the Holidays

By Catherine Crawford 

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The selection of houses may be a bit light around Christmastime, but if you do manage to find your dream house (and your real estate agent isn’t on vacation), here’s what you’ll have going for you:

1) Desperate sellers: According to Tim Deihl, an associate broker at Gibson Sotheby's International Realty in Boston, "A seller who's looking to move a piece of real estate during the holidays is a seller who needs to sell, because nobody in their right mind would pick that as the most convenient time to list their property."

2) Fewer rivals: The pain of putting in a bid for a house only to have someone counteroffer higher can be excruciating. You can mitigate part of that risk by house hunting in December which sees far fewer home sales than spring and summer.

3) Reduced prices: This is perhaps the best reason of all. Ben Apple writes on Realator.com that, “Generally, home prices are also at a 12-month low in December and the owner of a house on the market in the lead up to Christmas may be willing to negotiate on the price.”

4) Quicker closing: A combination of holiday spirit and a lender’s desire to wrap up the year could translate into a very speedy closing.

Merry hunting!

Have you considered house shopping during the holidays? Tell us in the comments or in a blog post.