By the end of the summer, prices reach their peak and stabilize during the winter months.
In the days of the Talmud, people would move into a new house in the summer because in the winter moving wagons would get stuck in the mud.
Even with our paved roads, most people today still prefer moving into a new house in the summer, usually to complete it in time for the new school year. Parents find it inconvenient to move when the children are in school or even in pre-school. Even singles, childless couples and the elderly usually want to move in the summer. It could be that we have simply become accustomed to starting the year in the fall—Rosh Hashanah time. We want to be nestled into our new home at the start of the new Jewish year and make a fresh start.
As we stated in our last article, homeowners in Israel like to “linger” a while in their homes even after they sell them. They may not vacate the home for another few months. Therefore the best time to shop for a new home is in the winter so that the property would be available for occupancy in the summer.
Most people don’t think that far ahead and they begin their rush to find a home around the holiday of Purim, which usually falls in March. However, as Passover approaches in April, real estate agents are bored and lonely, as the Jewish people stop everything before Passover and that includes selling or buying a home.
After Passover the Jewish people buy back their chametz from the non-Jew, put their passover dishes back in storage and are able again to think about buying and selling a home. As a result, prices begin to escalate. By the end of the summer, prices reach their peak and stabilize during the winter months. Next spring, prices will begin to rise again.
So if you are considering buying a home in Israel in the very near future, I recommend buying in the beginning of the summer rather than at the end of the summer since prices might be a bit lower. Of course, this is a general observation that holds true if the market is on the rise, which it has been in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for the past few years. If the market is on a downward trend, or if the market is stable, then there would be no difference between the beginning of the summer and the end of the summer.
We will have to wait until the end of this summer to determine if the market is slowing down, since summer sales are our best indicator of market trends for the upcoming year.
Baruch Finkelstein is an owner/broker of Remax Center in Jerusalem. The office is in the shopping center of Ramot and Baruch has agents that service all of Jerusalem.
cell: 972-545-251-219
office: 972-2-586-9980
baruch.finkelstein@remax.co.il