Is Spring always the best time to sell / buy?

[Monr0e]

We are hoping to move in the next 12 months and have been getting the house ready to put on the market. In the meantime I have been keeping an eye on rightmove, looking at houses in the area we want to move to. Due to school catchments the area is quite small. There is currently only 2 properties for sale within our budget which I find a bit worrying.

I am due to start a new job in September / October so we are now considering waiting and putting ours on the market at the end of the year with a view for us to hopefully have an offer and be able to buy early next year when our budget will be a bit bigger thanks to the new job. But everything I have read says winter is the worst time for buying and selling.

Is this generally people's experiences? Do estate agents agree with this?

Spring is supposed to be the best time to sell a house so we waited. Only to find there’s nothing much to buy where we want to move to because it’s all sold in January-February and not much is being put up for sale now. We’re in the thick of lots of viewings so it seems likely we will sell ours soon but we’re worried we won’t find anything to buy.

I think it depends on the house. E.g. If you have a north facing, unattractive garden (and the house is dark inside), it'll be doubly off-putting in good weather. In winter buyers might find it easier to compromise on it as everything looks gloomy and miserable anyway even with large south-facing windows.

Thanks both
Just feeling a bit twitchy about having to wait then not getting any offers or finding somewhere ourselves.

But yes, it will depend on lots of variables, just have to hope everything works out at the time