What is the best time of year to sell a house in Los Angeles?
Last updated August 19, 2026. Built from two full years of recorded closings.
When you are ready. That is not a dodge, it is what the numbers say. July closes more homes than any month and January closes the fewest, a gap of 61%, and yet January's median closed price lands above July's. More activity is not the same thing as a better result for you.
Here is the part almost nobody says out loud. Spring brings more buyers, and it brings every other seller who read the same advice. So ask yourself what you actually want on the day an offer gets written. Do you want the people considering your house to have fifteen others to walk through that weekend, or three?
Fewer buyers in the market also means fewer houses competing for them. The people shopping in December are not browsing. They are moving for a job, a school year, or a tax deadline, and your house is one of the few things they can see. A quieter season is a smaller pool of far more serious buyers, looking at a much shorter list. That is leverage, and it does not show up in a chart of closing volume.
None of this means winter beats summer. It means the calendar is a smaller lever than it is sold as, and the two seasons are different trades rather than a right answer and a wrong one. What you price the house at matters more than either, and a correctly priced house sells in December.
How many homes actually close each month
Every closed sale in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, across two complete twelve month periods so no month gets counted twice.
| Month | Closings per year |
|---|---|
| January | 3,011 |
| February | 3,484 |
| March | 4,328 |
| April | 4,716 |
| May | 4,604 |
| June | 4,707 |
| July | 4,853 |
| August | 4,503 |
| September | 4,287 |
| October | 4,633 |
| November | 3,782 |
| December | 4,143 |
Source: Ascension Estates archive of closed sales reported to the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, two complete twelve month periods ending July 2026.
A closing in July went into contract around late May, which means it was listed in April or early May. That is the real answer to the timing question. If you want to sell into the busiest stretch, your sign goes up in spring, not your keys change hands.
Notice December, though. It closes more homes than February and nearly as many as September. The dead winter market is mostly a story people repeat.
The price pattern, and what it actually measures
Here is where most articles about this go wrong, and it is worth reading carefully before you plan around it.
| Month | Median closed price |
|---|---|
| May | $1,325,000 |
| June | $1,295,000 |
| March | $1,295,000 |
| April | $1,261,637 |
| August | $1,237,500 |
| January | $1,313,000 |
| July | $1,213,000 |
| November | $1,173,500 |
| December | $1,155,000 |
Median of closed sales in Calabasas, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks and Hidden Hills, same two year window. Months not shown fall between these figures.
That spread does not mean your house is worth more in May. A median describes which homes sold, not what any one home is worth. Larger and more expensive houses cluster into the spring market, so the spring median rises. Sell the identical house in December and the buyer is not paying 13% less for it.
January is the giveaway. It has the fewest closings of any month and one of the higher medians. Volume and price are not moving together, which is what you would expect if the pattern is about the mix of homes rather than a seasonal discount.
Curious what yours is worth, in this month? We will build the number from your comps and send it over within 24 hours, at no cost.
The trade nobody mentions
The archive makes the trade concrete. August closes nearly twice as many homes as January, 11,805 against 6,018 across 105,531 listing side closings, and the average January close still came in above the average August close. Volume and price do not move together.
Read that carefully, because it is a claim about mix as much as about leverage. Which neighborhoods and which sizes happen to sell in a given month moves an average around, and it is not proof that the same house fetches more in January. What it does rule out is the simple story that summer pays more.
Spring brings more buyers. It also brings every other seller who read the same advice. You are competing with more inventory at exactly the moment there are more people to compete for.
Winter reverses both. Fewer buyers, and far fewer houses for them to look at. The people shopping in late December are moving for a job, a school year, or a tax deadline. They are not browsing. They are the most motivated buyers of the year, and your house is one of the few things they can see.
Neither season is a mistake. They are different trades.
What actually decides your result
Across every month in the data, the thing that separates a house that sells from a house that sits is not the calendar.
Price. Above what the closings support, and you sit in any month. Read what overpricing actually does.
Condition and preparation. A ready house in November beats an unprepared house in May. The equity boost planner shows which fixes are worth doing first.
Your own timeline. Waiting five months for spring costs you five months of carrying the house, and it assumes the market in five months looks like today's. Nobody knows that.
What these numbers do not tell you
Two years is a short window for a seasonal claim. Interest rates, inventory and the wider economy move these numbers far more than the month does, and any of them can swamp the pattern above in a single year. Treat the table as what happened recently, not as a forecast.
The honest summary: if you are ready to sell now, sell now. If you have genuine flexibility and no cost to waiting, listing in early spring puts you into the busiest stretch. That is the whole size of the effect.
If you want to know what your house would do in this market, in this month, we will put the numbers together and send them within 24 hours. No cost, and no obligation to list with anyone.
What is the best month to sell a house in Los Angeles?
More homes close in July than any other month, and fewer close in January than any other month. Working backwards through a typical timeline, a July closing was usually listed in April or May. But the size of that advantage is small compared to pricing, and a well priced house sells in any month.
Do houses sell for less in winter?
The median sale price is lower in November and December than in May. That gap mostly measures which homes sell in each month rather than what any one home is worth. Larger and more expensive houses cluster in the spring market, which pulls the spring median up. It does not mean your house is worth less in December.
Should I wait until spring to list my house?
Usually not. Spring brings more buyers, and it brings more competing listings at the same time. Waiting also costs you months of carrying the house, and it assumes the market in six months looks like the market today. If you are ready now, price is the lever that matters, not the calendar.
Are winter buyers less serious?
The opposite is closer to true. People shopping for a house in late December are usually moving for a job, a school year, or a closing tax deadline. They have a reason to be out, and there is less on the market for them to choose from.
Summary points
- July closes the most homes, January the fewest, and the gap is 61%.
- Working backwards, a July closing was listed in April or early May.
- The higher spring median measures which homes sell in spring, not what any one home is worth. Your house is not worth 13% less in December.
- Spring brings more buyers and more competing listings at the same time. Winter brings fewer of both, and the buyers who are out are moving for a reason.
- Two years is a short window for a seasonal claim. Rates and inventory move these numbers far more than the month does.
- If you are ready now, sell now. The timing effect is smaller than the pricing effect by a wide margin.