How Do Interest Rates Affect the Best Time to Sell My Home?

Spring and Fall are typically deemed the best times of year to list your home. Traditionally, these are the times of year when sellers receive the most money for their homes. For example, in 2025, Realtor.com predicts that listing a property between April 13 and April 19 could fetch the seller about $27,000 more than other times of the year. Zillow reported that in the last two weeks of May 2024, sellers received 1.6% more. These stats might confirm our belief that Spring is best, but there’s an important question to be asked. 

What About Interest Rates? 

Reports on the best time to sell are published by real estate authorities based on housing metrics and historical data. What they do not factor in are mortgage interest rates, which have a significant impact on the number of buyers entering the market. It would be, after all, impossible to factor this into predictions because no one knows what interest rates will do. However, there is an “at the time” decision you can make to get more for your home in the face of high interest rates. This is to offer a 2/1 Buydown. 

What is a 2/1 Buydown? 

A 2/1 Buydown is a type of seller credit that lowers the buyer’s interest rate by 2% the first year and by 1% the second year- an extremely attractive offer to buyers who are concerned about higher interest rates. The seller pays the cost of the buydown, which is equal to the money saved by the buyer. 

So, when it’s a time of year during which sellers are listing their homes for more, but interest rates are high, you can increase your chances of selling by meeting somewhere in the middle of how much you cash in on. Let’s take a look at an illustration. 

How to Get More When Interest Rates are High

Here’s a step-by-step scenario of the power of a 2/1 Buydown: 

1. Let’s say you have a home that would be marketable at $350k at any time of year 
2. Reports say listing in April could make your home marketable at $370k 
3. You decide to list your home for $370k in April, but interest rates are at 7%, decreasing your chances of being competitive at the higher price
4. You decide to offer a 2/1 Buydown, which, if the buyer is putting 10% down, costs you $7,761
5. Instead of taking a chance at receiving $20k more, you secure the best opportunity of selling your home, and put $12,239 more in your pocket ($20k – the cost of the buydown) 

At the end of the day, the decision to use a 2/1 Buydown as a selling tool is a matter of mitigating the risk of interest rate-sensitive buyers passing up on the opportunity to buy your home.  

Interested in Learning More? 

If your interest is piqued and you’d like to talk about offering a 2/1 Buydown this Spring or Fall, we’re here to help. United Home Loans has local offices in Nashville and Chicago and lends in 20 states across the country. We’ll partner up with your real estate agent to ensure that the right combination of sales price and buydown gets you the most out of your home. 

Sola, A. (19 Mar 2025). Here’s when to list your home for sale this spring — it could sell for up to $27,000 more, data shows. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/19/heres-when-to-list-your-home-for-sale-in-2025.htmll