When is Peak Real Estate Season in Phoenix Metro?

Peak thermometer doesn’t equate to peak real estate activity in the Valley.

Statistically, the busiest time of year for residential real estate activity in the greater Phoenix area is actually March through May. Summer months are traditionally the slowest. Here are a few of the reasons why summer is the quiet season for real estate transactions in greater Phoenix.

Flying the Coop

By the time summer rolls around, our snowbirds have packed up and headed north. Some estimates reveal between 5 to 15% of the Valley population uproots seasonally for cooler climates as temperatures climb in Phoenix. A 2004 study by ASU found that the population of the Valley shrinks by 300,000 long-term visitors every summer.

Tourists Have Gone Home

The Valley is host to several annual big-ticket events from January through March. Winter here brings crowds to MLB spring training (1,900,000 attendees) and the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction (350,000 attendees). There’s also the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament (655,000 attendees) and the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show (311,000 attendees), to name a few. Many visitors will fill up short-term rentals or buy real estate. Their impact though is only seasonal. Each of these major events has wrapped up and packed out every year by March 31st.

It’s a Dry Heat

Beginning in May, buyers take refuge from the heat. It is tough to shop for homes in triple digit temperatures. On average, the first day of 100-degree temperatures arrives in the Valley by May 2nd.

Go West, Young Man

Phoenicians escape the heat and summer monsoons and head west on Interstate 8. We make pilgrimages to San Diego during the summer months to find cooler temps. “Zonies,” they call us, according to my sister who lives there. Our license plates must reveal our provenance to the Southern Californians. It’s the damp, cool sea air that reinvigorates us.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. – Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor