Yahoo Finance The Best Day of the Year to Buy a House
The single best day of the year to purchase a home is — drumroll, please — Oct. 8. But if you’re in the process of purchasing a home now and have a closing date later in the month, don’t despair; chances are you’ll still get a pretty good deal.
RealtyTrac, a company that tracks public record housing data, recently crunched the numbers for more than 32 million house and condo sales since 2000 to figure out the best and worst months for buyers to purchase a home.
The study revealed that homes usually sell at their lowest prices in October.
“Of the 2.7 million sales closed in October over the last 15 years, the average sales price was 2.6 percent below the average estimated full market value at the time of sale,” RealtyTrac said.
Within the month, the magic day was Oct. 8, with the best deals of any other single day. RealtyTrac said that housing deals that closed Oct. 8 sold for an average of 10.8 percent below estimated market value.
February, July, December and January are the next best months to try to score a bargain deal on a house.
“The start of the school year and the holidays influence our buyer decisions and serve as a strategic indicator of the most advantageous times for buyers to land their lowest priced deal,” Mark Hughes, COO with First Team Real Estate in California, told RealtyTrac.
According to the study, April is the worst month of the year for buyers to close on a home. RealtyTrac said that since 2000, homes in April were purchased at an average premium of 1.2 percent above estimated market value — bad for buyers, but great for sellers.
Watch the video of ‘The Best Day of the Year to Buy a House’ on MoneyTalksNews.com.
Although the study results are interesting, Michael Golden, co-founder of Chicago-based real estate company @properties, told MarketWatch that they’re unlikely to matter to most prospective homebuyers. Golden said buyers are usually more interested in finding a house that suits their needs rather than buying a home on a certain date (or month).
“You can make it about the discount, but is it the house you want?” Golden said.
Are you looking to buy a home? Check out “6 Essential Steps to Buying the Right New Home.”
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This article was originally published on MoneyTalksNews.com as 'The Best Day of the Year to Buy a House'.
