The results are in: Thursday is still the best day to list your home. Homes listed on Thursday tend to sell for more money and in less time than homes listed on other days of the week.
Homes listed on Thursday sold for an average of $3,015 more than homes listed on Monday (the worst day to sell, by relative price advantage), according to our analysis of more than 2 million home sales across 148 metro areas that were both listed and sold in 2018. Homes listed on Wednesday did second best in terms of price advantage, selling for $2,620 on average more than homes listed on Monday. Homes listed on Thursday sold for 0.74 percent more relative to the list price than homes sold on Monday. For a home listed at $500,000, listing on a Thursday instead of Monday could mean a difference of $3,700 in your final sale price.
Homes listed on Thursday sell the fastest, with the typical Thursday-listed home going under contract 5 days faster than homes listed on Sunday. Homes listed on Sunday take the longest to find a buyer. Wednesday and Friday-listed homes were second-best, with the typical home finding a buyer 4 days faster.
Why does Thursday perform so well? Most homebuyers have the greatest availability to see homes for sale during the weekend. Homes listed on Thursday are fresh in buyers’ minds when they are planning their weekend.
“Psychologists have found that people tend to remember the last information they saw the best,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “If you list on a Thursday, buyers will be more likely to see your listing as a ‘new home for you‘ right before they go out and tour over the weekend.”
If you list on Friday it might be too late for a buyer to find time to see your home. If you list earlier in the week, newer listings that hit the market just as they’re making weekend plans might grab buyers’ attention instead. Thursday just hits that perfect sweet spot.
From 2017 to early 2018, the market heated up significantly, with homes selling at their fastest pace on record last June (median 35 days on market) and prices up nearly 10 percent. While Thursday retained its speed and price advantage, the day of the week homes were listed mattered less in spring 2018’s hotter seller’s market. When homebuyer demand far outpaces the supply of homes and nearly every home sells quickly and at or above list price, factors like which day a home is listed are less important. However, the market this year is not as easy for sellers—the median time on market has shot up to 59 days as of February, bidding wars have become much more rare and home prices are up less than 1 percent. If sellers want to maximize their chances of selling quickly and for the most money, it will become more important to pay attention to the little details.
For this analysis we analyzed more than 5 million homes that were both listed and sold during 2017 or 2018. We grouped all properties by the day of the week that it was listed on the MLS. We then subset the data for each metropolitan division and used a linear model to measure the marginal effects of listing each day of the week. We controlled for a variety of factors including the month the home was listed, the listing price, how long the home was on the market, and whether the property was a condo, townhome, or single family property. The summary findings are an average of the day of week effects, excluding the cases when the effect was not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.
