Donna Cicerone and her husband, Paul, want to put their three-bedroom home in Milton, Mass., on the market. First, they have to find a house to buy.

The Cicerones live in the Boston area, where all but three weekends this year have had snow, sleet or rain. Bad weather has forced them to cancel house-hunting plans half a dozen times, they said. When they have found a house they liked amid a limited supply of properties, they’ve been outbid.