Thursday, September 10, 2015

RealtyTrac Real-Life Analysis: The Best Time to Buy a Home


IRVINE, CA -- When is the best time of year to buy a home? RealtyTrac took a big data approach to this question, analyzing 32 million single family home and condo sales over the past 15 years.

 We compared average sale prices to average estimated market value at the time of sale to determine whether buyers paid a premium or bought at a discount.

Based on the closing date of the sale, we broke down the data by month, weekday and day of the year to identify when buyers historically have realized the biggest discounts. Below are high-level details.

·         The best month to close on the purchase of a home is October.


o   Out of 2.7 million single family home and condo sales over the last 15 years that closed in October, buyers realized an average discount of 2.6 percent below full estimated market value at the time of sale.

o   Following October as best months to buy were February, July, December and January — all fall or winter months except for July, which was a surprise given that conventional wisdom would suggest that is a good time to sell but not necessarily to buy to buy at a bargain price.

o   The worst month of the year to close on the purchase of a home is April, when buyers over the last 15 years have purchased at an average premium of 1.2 percent above estimated market value at the time of sale.


·         The best weekday to close on the purchase of a home is Monday.

o   Out of 5.5 million single family home and condo sales over the last 15 years that closed on a Monday, buyers realized an average discount of 2.3 percent below full estimated market value at the time of sale.

o   Friday is the second-best weekday to close on a home purchase. Buyers who closed on Friday realized an average discount of 2.0 percent.

o   Thursday is the worst day of the week to buy a home, with a 1.0 percent average discount, followed by Wednesday with a 1.4 percent average discount, and Tuesday, with a 1.9 percent average discount.


For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Jennifer von Pohlmann
Sr. Data PR Manager
Office: 949.502.8300 ext 139

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