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What Are the Most Cost-Effective Days to Buy a Home?

ATTOM has released its annual analysis of the best time of the year to buy a home, and this year, the analysis found that the month of October, as well as the winter months, offer homebuyers the best deals–fetching lower premiums than other months of the year.

ATTOM reported that buyers who closed on their home in October generally get the best deal compared to the spring homebuying season. While the premium is still above market value, homebuyers are only dealing with a 2.9% premium, as opposed to the month of May, when homebuyers were experiencing an average premium of 11.5%.

Nationally, days that fall in December offered the lowest premium for homebuyers:

  • December 5 with a 1.6% premium
  • December 26 with a 2% premium
  • January 6 with a 2.2% premium
  • November 9 with a 2.3% premium
  • December 31 with a 2.4% premium

On the other end of the spectrum, days that fall in May offered the highest premium for homebuyers:

  • May 23 and 27 with a 17.4% premium
  • May 20 with a 16.6% premium
  • May 16 with a 15.6% premium
  • May 19 with a 15.4% premium

ATTOM also found that the best months to buy a home by state—the states realizing the biggest discounts below full market value—included:

  • Delaware (-7.9% in February)
  • Tennessee (-7% in January)
  • New Jersey (-4.9% in February)
  • Maryland (-4.8% in November)
  • Ohio (-4.8% in January)

For their analysis, ATTOM examined any calendar day in the last eight years (2013 to 2020) with at least 10,000 single-family home and condo sales. Matching this measure were 362 days (including leap year data), with four exceptions–January 1, July 4, November 11, and December 25. Then, to calculate the premium or discount paid on a given day, ATTOM compared the median sales price for homes with a purchase closing on that day with the median automated valuation model (AVM) for those same homes at the time of sale.

About Author: Eric C. Peck

Eric C. Peck has 20-plus years’ experience covering the mortgage industry, he most recently served as Editor-in-Chief for The Mortgage Press and National Mortgage Professional Magazine. Peck graduated from the New York Institute of Technology where he received his B.A. in Communication Arts/Media. After graduating, he began his professional career with Videography Magazine before landing in the mortgage space. Peck has edited three published books and has served as Copy Editor for Entrepreneur.com.
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