Jacob McCrackin
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Most agent articles on this question end the same way: list now. Some sellers should. Others will get a better result in March, and a few should not be choosing between the two at all, because their orders have already chosen for them.
The answer depends on four things about your situation.
Fewer people tour houses between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and fewer sellers list. The buyers who do show up tend to have a reason: a job start, a lease ending, or a January report date. Fewer showings is the cost. Less competition from other listings is the benefit.
What does not change is how buyers decide on price. They still compare your house with the most recent closed sales, and in El Paso County those sales put the August median single-family price at $475,000, 2.1% lower than a year earlier. A holiday listing priced like a spring listing sits. Neither season rescues a price that is too high.
If you have orders with a report date in January, February or March, the season has been decided. Homes in El Paso County averaged 46 days on the market in August, and a purchase here usually takes 30 to 45 days to close after an offer is accepted. Count backwards from your report date and you will usually find the listing needs to go up now.
If you have no deadline, you have a real choice, and the rest of these questions matter more.
A seller with plenty of equity can price to the market in December and still walk away with what they need. A seller who bought recently, or who would net very little after commission and closing costs, has less room. If a winter price would leave you short at the closing table, waiting for more buyers is often the safer plan. We cover what the wait itself costs in our playbook for selling in a buyer’s market.
Some houses photograph and show well in any month. Others sell on a garden, a deck with a view, mature trees or a big green backyard, and in December those are brown, bare or under snow. If the best thing about your house is outside, spring will show it off. If the best thing is inside, a well-lit winter listing loses little.
Holiday listings work when the house is easy to show. If you will be hosting family, traveling for two weeks, or living around a toddler’s nap and a houseful of guests, buyers will find it hard to get in, and a listing nobody can see gets stale fast. Be honest about your December calendar before you sign a listing agreement.
For sellers without a deadline, the first weeks of January are often a better start than mid-December. Buyers who paused for the holidays come back, people with spring orders start looking, and your listing is new when they do. If you go this way, have the photos taken before you decorate or after the decorations come down, because a listing with Christmas lights in the photos looks old by February.
Plan the closing calendar too. Title companies and lenders close or run short-staffed around Christmas and New Year’s Day, so a contract written in early December should not count on closing in the last week of the year.
List now if you have a report date before spring, a house that shows well inside, and enough equity to price to the market. Wait for spring if you have no deadline, little equity, a house that sells on its outdoor space, or a December you cannot work showings around. If you fall in between, aim for early January.
Either way, the price still comes from closed sales. Our page on how to sell my home in Colorado Springs covers pricing and the PCS side of a sale.
No, but it suits some sellers better than others. You get fewer showings and less competition from other listings. It works best for sellers with a deadline, a house that shows well inside and enough equity to price to the market.
Price comes from recent closed sales, not from the month you list. What changes is the number of buyers who see it. A correctly priced house can sell in December; an overpriced one will sit in any season.
Usually now. With homes averaging 46 days on the market in August and 30 to 45 days to close, a seller with a January to March report date often needs to list before the holidays to close in time. Count backwards from your report date.
Not sure which group you are in? Get a valuation and a timing recommendation: we will price your house from closed sales and tell you plainly whether listing now or waiting makes more sense.
Market figures: Pikes Peak Association of REALTORS®, Monthly Sales Activity, corrected August 2026 report, El Paso County single-family and patio homes. Last updated October 23, 2026.
Jacob McCrackin left the Army as a Staff Sergeant and grew up in Colorado. He works with veterans and military families selling across Colorado Springs as an associate broker with Solid Oak Realty.