Best season to move to Hungary

I suppose it depends on ones individual needs.
Some people move before the school year starts, some when a new job opp. happens and some when the mood hits them.
We usually visited or moved to HU when it was springtime.
Not fun to arrive in the middle of winter or the humid months of summer.
Not everyone has a choice though.
Rents  I really don't know about but as one usually has to sign a lease it should be a flat price for every month of the contract.
If you're renting at a vacation resort area for a short term then yes, prices will be more for the high season.
I don't think anyone would understand the culture by attending a few events, these things take time to understand.

I think around about mid-June or July is reasonable.  School will be over by then. School starts 1st September so if with kids, this gives time for orientation and possibly some language lessons.

We moved in February. The advantage of that is travel is cheap. We already owned the lion's share of our (extended) family's house so we didn't have to worry about where to stay, rent or deadlines.

Because we don't have children it made much more sense to travel during term time. We weren't too worried about the weather. As well as the main haul by road, we expected to make a couple of trips by air, so again it made more sense to do it during low season.

Also, in the high-tech sector there tends to be a lot more recruitment around the winter months, to finish contracts by year end or start new ones (which are often aligned with the fiscal year, which in Hungary is the same as the calendar year). This is not a golden rule of course, but I see a lot more vacancies than I do during July/August etc. Recruitment firms and Human Resources people have holidays too!

That's my personal experience but, as has been said, it very much depends on your personal circumstances. Neither the missus nor I had a job lined up when we decided to move here, but since the missus is Hungarian and we had been coming back and forth for several years, we were reasonably confident in finding work within a few months (and had enough money saved, and no rent to pay etc, so that we didn't need to worry too much about taking the first job offered). It would no doubt be very different if you had a job lined up, family to move with schools to arrange, etc.

We moved here in the autumn.

Rented storage back in Switzerland before we left, and spent the next 18 months, whenever we felt like it, traveling back to get more of our "stuff".

Personally, moving anywhere in a temperate climate is better in spring or autumn. Not too hot. Not too cold. And no snow to deal with if driving.

My cottage and land and the area around looked totally beautiful when I viewed it in a snowy January but the snow hid a few minor defects around the property and rubbish strewn around the bus stops etc.
I was lucky to have owned the property a few years before I was able to spend more time in Hungary so I could get it more into shape before I settled.

If you are going to live in the countryside Spring is a good time to arrive because you can get familiar with the growing seasons and changing landscape.

If you have children you will be tied to the school year so its good to settle during the summer holiday time so that they can start with everyone else in September .
Also with employment you may have little choice over start date.
I suppose its like moving house in any other country. Once I moved house in December and the cold and the icy roads made everything difficult but at least you will find out quickly if you have an inadequate heating system .

anns wrote:

. Once I moved house in December and the cold and the icy roads made everything difficult but at least you will find out quickly if you have an inadequate heating system .

Yes, we found that out when we moved in February, the radiator gas boiler's control panel went. Needed two attempts to replace it. Fortunately we have another gas boiler for hot water, and had electric oil-filled heaters which kept the cold at bay a little.

One side-effect was that the electricity company trebled our fixed monthly payments and it has taken us four months to convince them we won't use that much electricity normally. The boiler's quite old but apparently new ones are all combi(?) boilers which cost a fortune (and trade wisdom seems to be that they are not as good as old-fashioned boilers).

We had expected to need to do a major service on the boilers but were hoping they would last a bit longer! Usually I get the boilers serviced in early Autumn, but the previous owners did not have that kind of common sense.