Spring is officially back. Baseball season is here, home buyers are out in force, and, most importantly to me, it’s my mother’s birthday! That combination feels like the perfect reminder that a new season is underway — and in real estate, the market is heating up.

Meanwhile, the mortgage market remains volatile. Just four weeks after falling to 5.99% — the lowest level since August 2022 — rates have climbed back to 6.64%, an eight-month high.

Most bond market experts still expect rates to ease, but timing your rate lock will be crucial. If we’re actively working together, I’ll be sure to let you know when rates dip.

Today’s Topics:

When is The Best Time to Sell?
21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
Win an Austin House for the Price of Coffee
Mortgage Rates Surge
Drew Barrymore Lists 12 Acre Harrison Estate

Realtor.com vs. Zillow: The Best Time to Sell

The real estate world is arguing over the best time to list a home on the market. Realtor.com says the sweet spot is April 12–18, pointing to a strong mix of buyer demand, quicker sales, and less competition. Zillow disagrees, saying the last two weeks of May could bring the biggest payday, with sellers earning about 1.7% more nationally.

Realtor.com’s case: homes are priced 1.3% above the average week, get 16.7% more views, sell 17% faster, and face 11.9% fewer competing listings in mid-April.
Zillow’s case: Listings in late May sold for 1.7% more nationally, or about $6,000 more on a typical home. In New York, Zillow projects a larger boost of 1.8%, or roughly $13,200 more per sale.

Ralph’s Take

Why the difference? Realtor.com and Zillow are measuring different outcomes. Realtor.com is focused on overall market balance, while Zillow is focused more narrowly on price performance. In reality: there is no universal best week. Sellers should time their listing based on whether they care most about selling quickly, attracting more buyers, or squeezing out the highest possible price in their local market.

Westchester Weekly Market Tracker 📈

‘Coming Soon’: 27 ↑+3
New Listings: 234 ↓-12
Price Reductions: 60 ↑+19
Pending Sales: 178 ↑+21
Closed Sales: 113 ↑+18

💰 Find your home’s value here!

_{Property Type: Residential. OneKey MLS, Inc. 3/20/26 - 3/27/26.}

Bipartisan Senate Bill Takes Aim at Housing Supply

The Senate advanced the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a major housing supply bill aimed at easing affordability pressures and expanding development tools for local communities. The legislation would streamline some federal barriers to building, strengthen support for manufactured and rural housing, and update key housing programs. NAR says the bill is one of the most significant bipartisan housing measures to move forward in years. Highlights include:

Cuts red tape: Streamlines environmental reviews, especially for housing projects, to get developments moving faster.
Gives cities more building tools: Expands planning grants, creates an innovation fund, supports pre-approved home designs, and helps convert vacant buildings into housing.
Expands manufactured and modular housing: Updates the federal manufactured housing definition, expands financing, and backs preservation of manufactured housing communities.
Improves financing and affordable programs: Raises FHA multifamily loan limits, reforms small-dollar mortgages, and updates the HOME program to support more affordable housing.
Limits large institutional investors: Limits large investors in single-family homes by barring certain purchases to preserve more homeownership opportunities for families.

Ralph’s Take

This is one of the more serious bipartisan efforts to make housing easier and cheaper to build, which is good news. But it’s more likely to help around the margins than to fully solve the affordability issue on its own. One example is the bill’s focus on institutional investors (those owning 1,000+ homes); it’s a strong headline, but those firms own only a small share of the housing market to begin with. So overall, I would call this a meaningful step forward rather than a complete fix.

Win a $700K Austin House for the Price of Breakfast

I just entered a raffle to win a brand-new home in East Austin’s Holly District. This “raffle real estate” model could blow up. Texas Builders is running a sweepstakes on Raffall with a new 2 bed / 2.5 bath home as the grand prize.

They need 135,000 entries for the house itself to be awarded.
If they don’t hit that minimum, the prize converts to a cash payout based on ticket revenue instead.
10% of ticket sales go to the Central Texas Food Bank

Ralph’s Take

In a world where “affordable housing” feels like a joke, this format turns homeownership into internet-native entertainment — part charity fundraiser, part Shopify checkout, part “what if my life changed on a random Tuesday?” That’s exactly why it has a shot at working. The press value alone is huge. Check out the sweepstakes here