Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

Chart of the Day
When is the best time of the year to buy or sell a home? Today's Chart of the Day answers that question plus demonstrates that timing your home purchase or sale could save you a significant amount of money. To create today's chart, we compared each month's 1990-2003 average selling price to the entire 1990-2003 average to determine if home prices carried a premium or discount for any given month. As the chart shows, home buyers were willing to pay a premium during the summer when the weather was generally good and the kids were out of school. The greatest discounts occurred in February when the weather was bad, the kids were in school, and the initial tax benefits were a long way off. Also of interest is the magnitude of the variance. For example, the average selling price in June was 5.8% higher than in February. At first glance, that might not seem so dramatic but the data suggests that a $300,000 home in February could turn into a $317,400 home four months later.