When Is the Best Time to Sell a House in Minnesota?

The month you pick to list your Minnesota home for sale can make an astonishing difference in how much you make and how fast it sells. How astonishing? Based on historical sales data, if you list your $350,000 Maple Grove home in December for a March closing, you could sell it for nearly $20,000 more than the yearly average.

Timing is essential in Minnesota because of its frigid winters and potentially shortened selling season. In The Gopher State, you will want to take advantage of the spring and summer seasons. Ultimately, the best time to sell a house in Minnesota depends on your goals as a seller.

This post gives you a closer look at the best times to sell, market and selling trends you need to know about, and insider tips to help you sell your Minnesota home faster and for more money.

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Minnesota housing trends

Here are some Minnesota sales trends that provide context to when might be the best time to sell your house:

When it comes to housing inventory, Minnesota is lacking compared to the rest of the country. The “months of inventory” for Minnesota is just under one month, meaning it would take less than a month for currently-listed homes to sell given the sales pace the area is experiencing.

If an area has more months’ supply, six, for example, the inventory is typically considered more balanced and associated with moderate price appreciation. A lower number of months can push prices up more rapidly. However, Minnesota homes are slightly less expensive compared to national averages and sell quicker. We’ll look at housing inventory needs again in our Minnesota selling trends section below.

When is the best time to sell a house in Minnesota?

The best time to sell a house in Minnesota depends on your selling aspirations. There may be a better month for the best time to sell fast and a month for the best time to sell for a higher price.

The best time to sell also depends on where you live in Minnesota and the exclusive aspects of the community surrounding your home.

The weather also impacts the best time to sell your home in Minnesota. A top real estate team, Marcia Gehrt and Beth Norduane of the Enclave Team from Rochester, Minnesota, agreed that the best time to sell your home is when sunny days make being outside more pleasant. “In our market, part of the influx is just spring in Minnesota; it’s finally when the weather breaks,” Gehrt says.

To give you a better idea, we’ve looked at actual real estate transaction data for six cities of different sizes that provide an overview of what might be the best times to sell your Minnesota home and the possible benefits. Your selling results will vary depending on what’s happening in your market and other home-selling variables.

6 cities in Minnesota

Based on historical home sales data, 2014-2021

Enter your city into our free online Best Time To Sell Calculator to check out the best times for you to list and sell your home.

6 selling trends in Minnesota

You should know about selling trends in Minnesota that spring is a prime selling season. “Things start to ramp up at the end of February,” Gehrt says. “The three best months are February, March, and April pretty consistently every year in Rochester.” The weather heats up in Minnesota, and so does the real estate market.

While selling in warmer seasons may be ideal, sometimes life happens. Don’t worry if you have to list in the winter; the market still sees consistent movement. “Even in the winter months, when there aren’t as many buyers in the market, there’s also less inventory,” Norduane says. “There isn’t necessarily a bad time.” The lack of inventory still makes the winter a viable time to sell your home, but ideally, you will be able to list in the spring.

Through our agent interviews and research, we compiled a list of six seasonal trends that can impact home sales and real estate transaction timing in Minnesota:

1. Sometimes, vacationers scoop up second homes and cabins in the northern part of the state. “There’s a lot of lakefront property in Minnesota,” Gehrt explains. “Those [properties] are typically more middle to high-end homes.”

2. Educators move in the summer months and sometimes cause demand in the state.

3. Minnesota winters are bitterly cold. That might contribute to the fact that Minnesota saw 39.9% more people move out than move in — that’s the sixth-highest rate of people moving out in the United States.

4. The Mayo Clinic tends to hire many people in June. New residents, graduating nurses, and incoming doctors start looking for homes in March so that they can begin their job in June.

5. Patients at the Mayo Clinic also contribute to the movement in the real estate market. Parents want to be close to their children getting treatment, or patients want to be close to year-round care. That means people are definitely in the market to buy. “When patients come for their treatment, they have a place to stay,” Norduane says. “It’s more a home than a hotel.”

6. Some large corporations (the three biggest include UnitedHealth Group, Target, and Best Buy) call Minnesota home. Those companies loosely follow a hiring season. “They tend to move in summer months,” Gehrt says. “They want to have their kids be able to finish school before moving.”

Connect With a Top Agent to Sell Your Minnesota Home

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Our data shows the top 5% of agents across the U.S. help clients sell their home for as much as 10% more than the average real estate agent.

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Insider tips to help sell your Minnesota home

No matter what time of year you decide to sell, or need to sell, here are some tips from our expert agents that can help you with a fast sale or get top dollar for your Minnesota home:

• An attached garage is a “dream” and makes your home attractive to buyers. A garage lets residents avoid the frigid Minnesota winter. That means no ice to scrape off your windshield. “If it’s [the garage] detached from the house, you have to walk through the snow,” Gehrt says. “Winter is cold, and a blizzard can be a thing.”

• Advertise the home’s walking distance and a short commute to work and stores. The cold winters make fast travel time ideal for residents. Play up your home’s closeness and convenient location to your advantage.

• Market the home’s outdoor space. Minnesotans like their yards and want to have room for children and pets.

• Like many places in the country, remote work is working for Minnesotans. Even if you don’t have one now, stage a home office area.

Answers to other Minnesota home-selling questions

Are homes in Minnesota appreciating faster or slower than in other states?

More people are moving out of Minnesota than moving in. As a result, there are other parts of the country where there is higher appreciation. “I think we tend to stay in a more conservative range,” Norduane says. She estimates that houses appreciated 14% to 16% over the last year.

As your home in Minnesota gains value, you might decide that you’re ready to sell. See what your home might be worth using HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator. Our free tool uses transaction data from multiple sources to create a real-time ballpark value estimate based on current market trends.

What if I need a fast sale and closing in Minnesota?

If you’re facing a life change that requires a fast home sale or don’t have the time or money to make repairs, consider requesting an all-cash offer using HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform.

Simple Sale provides cash offers for homes in almost any condition in Minnesota. You can skip the repairs and showings and close in as few as ten days. Complete a short questionnaire and receive a no-obligation cash offer within 48 hours.

What is the biggest mistake sellers make when selling a home in Minnesota?

One mistake that sellers make is to force a sale in the spring or summer. “I think that sometimes people can pressure themselves, or maybe the timing isn’t right for them,” Norduane says. Winter is still a viable time to sell your house in Minnesota.

Another mistake that some sellers make in Minnesota is not doing proper upkeep on the exterior. Winters are cold, so people spend a lot of time in the house. As a result, sellers sometimes forget to give their homes a facelift. Drabby paint, dead yards, and sloppy landscapes might be enough to turn potential buyers away.

Find a top agent in Minnesota for a successful home sale

Timing is a critical component in determining the best time to sell your house in Minnesota. All in all, your selling objectives dictate the best time for you to sell. Generally, early spring and summer are the best time to sell your house for the most money or the fastest closing.

Here is a quick recap of trends and tips that impact selling a home in Minnesota:

• Vacation homes with lakefront are attractive options for buyers
• Teachers and people with school-age children move the most during summer
• Winter weather affects the real estate market
• The Mayo Clinic and other corporations have early spring and summer hiring seasons
• An attached garage will make your home stand out
• Spruce up outdoor spaces to make your home marketable

Now you know the best times to sell your Minnesota home. One more question you might ask is, what’s the best way to sell? Our data shows that the top 5% of real estate agents across the U.S. sell homes faster and for as much as 10% more than the average agent.

Partner with a top Minnesota agent using HomeLight’s free Agent Match platform. Our matching service tool analyzes over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

Header Image Source: (Aidan Fetterson / Unsplash)