We are officially in the home stretch of the year, which means one thing: Only highly motivated, flexible and persistent buyers and sellers will prevail.
I’d say that a good portion of semi-serious home buyers falls off once the turkey leaves the table. For those buyers who are in town and not too distracted by shopping and holiday parties, it’s time to crack down and get one of the 164 single-family homes or 241 condos currently on the market.
Homeowners seeking to sell their home by the end of the year have a small window of time this month, particularly as most buyers’ loans need roughly 21-30 days to close. However, that’s okay because sellers with substantial sale profits whose transactions close in January won’t be responsible for capital gains tax until 2016. And they won’t be subject to the uncertainty—and most likely higher interest rates—that will come with the 2016 market.