Holidays to Spring in Riverside County: When Homes List, Sell, and Sit

How does the Riverside County housing market change from the holidays to spring? Listings drop in December and surge in January, and buyers build into March and April. If you're weighing the best time to sell, December had the fewest new listings per buyer going under contract in four of the last five seasons, per CRMLS data.

By Chris Leeper, REALTOR®, DRE #01881634 · Leeper Realty Group, brokered by eXp Realty of California, Inc. · Published November 2026

"Wait until spring" is familiar timing advice for anyone thinking about selling in Riverside County, and it rests on two ideas. Spring brings more buyers, and more buyers means a better price.

We pulled five seasons of CRMLS data to test both ideas, October through April, every season from 2021-22 through 2025-26. The buyers do show up. In every season, the number of homes going under contract climbed by a third to more than half from December to March. Sellers show up too, and faster. New listings jumped 48% to 81% from December to January in every one of those seasons. And in the last two seasons, the county's median sale price in April landed within 1% of the October before.

This article walks through the calendar month by month: when homes list, when they go under contract, when they sit, and what each stretch means if you're selling or buying. These are dated history figures and they won't be updated. For where the market stands this month, see our Riverside County market page.

Where These Numbers Come From

Every figure here comes from CRMLS InfoSparks, the market statistics tool built on the MLS that Riverside County agents use. We pulled it on November 4, 2026, for all residential sales (detached homes, condos, townhomes and manufactured homes), monthly, for Riverside County as a whole and for Moreno Valley.

A few terms come up throughout:

• New listings are homes that came on the market that month.
• Pending sales are homes that went under contract that month. This is the best monthly read on buyer activity, since a closing usually lands a month or more after the buyer actually decided.
• Days on market here means InfoSparks' median days active in the MLS, from listing to contract.
• Seasons run October through April. "2024-25" means October 2024 through April 2025.

The five-season comparison runs through April 2026. October 2026 appears once, near the end, as an early read on the season starting now, from a pull on November 11, 2026.

Buyers Build From December Through March

Buyer activity in Riverside County bottoms out in December and builds steadily into March.

Pending sales rose from December to March by 36% in 2021-22, 58% in 2022-23, 52% in 2023-24, 50% in 2024-25 and 50% in 2025-26. In the most recent season, that meant 1,688 homes going under contract countywide in December 2025 and 2,527 in March 2026.

That part of the spring advice holds up every year. If the only question is when the most buyers are actively writing offers, March and April win.

Sellers Come Back Faster, Starting in January

New listings follow a sharper curve. They drop hard in December and surge in January.

From December to January, new listings in Riverside County rose 48% in 2021-22, 53% in 2022-23, 66% in 2023-24, 81% in 2024-25 and 69% in 2025-26. In the 2024-25 season, 2,200 homes came on the market in December 2024 and 3,981 in January 2025.

Buyers don't jump that fast. Pending sales from December to January rose between 8% and 28% across those five seasons. So January is when the most new competition arrives for every seller, weeks before the buyer side catches up.

Moreno Valley follows the same calendar. New listings in the city went from 73 in December 2025 to 154 in January 2026, more than double.

December Has Been the Least Crowded Month to Sell In

One way to measure competition is to compare new listings with pending sales in the same month. When more homes come on the market than go under contract, sellers are competing for a smaller pool of buyers. When fewer come on than go under contract, the balance tips the other way.

Across the five seasons, December had the lowest ratio of new listings to pending sales of any month from October to April in four of them:

• 2021-22: 0.87 new listings per pending sale in December 2021, the lowest of the season.
• 2023-24: 1.20 in December 2023, against 1.56 the next month.
• 2024-25: 1.27 in December 2024, against 1.98 in January 2025.
• 2025-26: 1.32 in December 2025, against 1.86 in January 2026.

The exception was 2022-23, when April 2023 came in at 1.12 and December 2022 at 1.13, essentially a tie.

November sits in between. In every one of the five seasons, the ratio fell from October to November and again to December. In 2025-26 it ran 1.73 in October 2025, 1.45 in November and 1.32 in December.

Months of supply, which measures how long the current inventory would last at the current pace of sales, tells the same story. In four of the five seasons, December posted the lowest months of supply from October to April, or tied for it. In the 2025-26 season it ran 4.4 months in December 2025, compared with 4.6 in January 2026 and 4.8 in April 2026.

December still has fewer buyers in total. Fewer homes go under contract in December than in any spring month. The point is the balance. Proportionally, a December listing has had less competition for the buyers who are out there than a listing launched in January.

The Spring Price Bump Has Shrunk to Almost Nothing

The second half of the spring advice is price. Here is how the countywide median sale price moved from October to the following April in each season:

• 2021-22: $535,000 to $598,247, up 11.8%
• 2022-23: $550,000 to $565,250, up 2.8%
• 2023-24: $575,000 to $610,000, up 6.1%
• 2024-25: $605,000 to $610,000, up 0.8%
• 2025-26: $600,000 to $600,000, flat

The first season was the tail end of the 2021 run-up, when prices were climbing month after month regardless of the calendar. The last two seasons are the ones that look most like a normal market, and in both of them a homeowner who waited from October to April didn't see the median move.

Moreno Valley was close to flat too. Its median rose 2.9% from October 2024 to April 2025 and 0.4% from October 2025 to April 2026.

A median doesn't tell the whole story. It shifts with the mix of homes that sold, and that mix changes with the season. Your own home's value depends on your comparable sales, and that's a conversation about your street rather than the county.

Homes Sit Longest in January and February

Days on market climb through the winter and peak right after the holidays.

The county's median days active in the MLS peaked in January or February in every one of the five seasons. In 2025-26 it ran 39 days in October 2025, 41 in January and February 2026, and dropped to 30 by April 2026. In 2022-23 it reached 45 days in February 2023 before falling to 27 in April.

Part of that peak is carryover. Homes listed in the fall that haven't sold by January keep counting, which pulls the winter number up. That doesn't make it less real for the seller living through it, but it does mean a new listing in January isn't automatically headed for 41 days.

The other place the winter shows up is price received. The median sale price as a share of the original list price hit its low for the season in December or January every year. In 2025-26, homes sold for a median of 97.5% of their original list price in January 2026, compared with 98.3% in April 2026.

Here is what that gap looks like on an example home listed at $600,000. At 97.5% of list, the home sells for $585,000. At 98.3%, it sells for $589,800. That's a $4,800 difference, using the 2025-26 season's January and April medians as the example.

What This Means If You're Selling

The five-season pattern points to a few practical decisions.

If you're ready now, December has had the least competition. Fewer homeowners list in December, and the ones who do have shared the buyers in the market with fewer competing homes. Expect fewer total showings and a longer stretch on market, and price for it from day one.

If you're waiting for spring, plan around January. The new competition lands in January, a few weeks before buyer activity builds. A home that's photographed, priced and ready to go live before the January listings arrive is in front of the spring buyers who start looking early, ahead of the listings that come on in February and March.

Don't wait for spring on price alone. In the last two seasons, the county median in April was where it was the October before. Spring brings more buyers, and that's a real reason to list then. A higher price hasn't been part of the package lately.

This spring may not look like the last two. The new season is already starting differently. In October 2026, Riverside County had about 2.1 new listings for every home that went under contract, the most crowded October of the last six, per CRMLS figures pulled November 11, 2026. Mortgage rates passed 7% in October 2026, according to Freddie Mac, after spending most of the year lower. How that plays out over the winter will shape the 2027 spring market, and the five-season pattern can't tell you which way it goes. That's a reason to watch the market page month to month rather than assume.

Whatever month you choose, the price you launch at will do more for your result than the month you pick.

What This Means If You're Buying

The same calendar works in reverse for buyers.

Winter is when sellers have given the most room. The share of original list price received bottoms out in December and January, and homes sit longest in January and February. A seller who listed in October and is still on the market in January has carried the home for three months, and that's a fair point to ask about price or credits.

Winter also has the fewest homes to choose from. New listings drop sharply in December. If you need a specific size, neighborhood or price point, you'll have the fewest homes to choose from in the same months sellers have given the most room on price.

Spring brings the most homes to choose from, and the most other buyers. January's new listings give you options, and by March you're competing with the largest number of other buyers going under contract all season.

For a deeper look at the buying process, including a full timeline and additional tips, visit our Buyer's Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is spring the best time to sell a house in Riverside County? Spring brings the most buyers. Pending sales rose 36% to 58% from December to March in each of the last five seasons, based on CRMLS data. It also brings the most competing listings, and the county median sale price was flat from October to April in both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

Is it bad to sell a house in December in Riverside County? No. December has fewer buyers in total, but in four of the last five seasons it also had the lowest ratio of new listings to pending sales of any month from October to April. Expect a longer time on market and price accordingly.

What is the slowest month for home sales in Riverside County? January. It had the fewest closed sales of any month from October to April in all five seasons we pulled, and the longest or second-longest days on market. Much of that reflects contracts that were written in December.

Do home prices go up in the spring in Riverside County? They have, but not by much lately. The county median rose 11.8% from October 2021 to April 2022, then 2.8%, 6.1%, 0.8% and 0% in the four seasons after. Median price also shifts with the mix of homes selling, so your own comparable sales tell you more.

When do most new listings come on the market? New listings drop to their lowest point of the season in December and jump in January, rising 48% to 81% from December to January in each of the last five seasons. They stay high through March and April.

Where can I find this month's numbers? These are dated figures from October 2021 through October 2026, pulled in November 2026, and they won't be updated. Current median price, inventory and days on market are on our Riverside County market page, updated monthly.

Pick Your Month With Your Own Numbers

The county calendar tells you how the market moves. Your street can move differently. Text me at 951-741-5311 and I'll pull these same numbers for your city and price range, so you can see which month has worked best for homes like yours before you pick a list date.

Call or text Chris Leeper at 951-741-5311 or visit https://linktr.ee/leeperrealtygroup.

Who you work with matters.

Chris Leeper, REALTOR®, DRE #01881634, Brokered by eXp Realty of California, Inc.

Sources

• CRMLS InfoSparks market statistics, Riverside County and Moreno Valley, residential (all property sub-types), monthly October 2021 through April 2026, pulled November 4, 2026; October 2021 through October 2026 new listings and pending sales for Riverside County, pulled November 11, 2026.
• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed rate, October 2026: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
• Internal: Riverside County market page (https://www.leeperrealtygroup.com/hub/riverside-county-market); Buyer's Guide (https://www.leeperrealtygroup.com/buyer-guide/)