Since mid-2021, homes that closed in Fairfax County between April and June sold for about 6 percent above their year’s average. Homes that closed between December and February sold about 7 percent below it.
Most of Northern Virginia follows that calendar. Loudoun and Arlington peak in the same April to June window, and Prince William a month later, May to July. To close between April and June, you would list in March, April or May.
The swing is not the same everywhere. In Arlington, spring closings ran about 4 percent above the year’s average and winter closings about 4 percent below.
So if you ask me in the fall whether to sell now, the first honest answer is that spring has usually sold for more. It is also only part of the answer.
What the spring number does not tell you
A monthly median compares different houses, the ones that happened to close that month. It does not say what your house would bring in May compared with November.
Spring also brings more sellers. In September I wrote about why a smaller fall market is not a weaker one: the buyers still looking in October are usually looking because they have to.
Prices are rising slowly, too. In August 2026 the typical home in Fairfax County was worth $760,599, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier. Loudoun was up 1.4 percent and Prince William 1.1 percent. At that pace, waiting a few months does not buy you much appreciation.
When selling now makes sense
You have already found the next place. Carrying two homes through the winter to wait for spring costs a mortgage payment, taxes and insurance every month.
Your house is ready. A home that is clean, repaired and priced against recent comparable sales gets its best attention in its first two weeks, whatever the month.
If you are downsizing, the right time is usually when you are ready to go, not when the calendar says so.
Waiting does make sense when the work your house needs cannot be finished before winter, or when your move date is set by something outside your control. If spring is the plan, the work starts in winter: a March listing means repairs, paint and photos in January and February, and a price set from the sales that closed while you were getting ready.
If you are weighing now against spring, I will run both for your street: what similar homes sold for in each season, and what you would walk away with. Then you decide. You can reach me at 571-496-9009.
Source: Zillow Research, median sale prices by month from June 2021 to July 2026, each year measured against its own average; ZHVI typical home values, August 2025 and August 2026.