Attention home buyers: circle this week as the best time of year to buy a new home

While experts throw around phrases like "housing repair" and "slowdown in the real estate market", it seems that things are not much easier for the apartment buyers in Shapiro at the moment. There aren't many houses for sale yet, and what is on the market sells quickly - and often for more than the asking price.
Buyers looking for a vacation - and to save money on the purchase price of a home - should circle the week of September 25 to October 1 in their calendars. Realtor.com® declared it the best week of the year nationally for buying a property because there are traditionally about 8.4% more homes for sale. And in a big bonus for buyers, properties are typically priced on average about $20,000 less than normal.
"The best time to buy a home is the last week of September, because historically the market is welcoming to buyers," says Realtor.com economic data analyst Hannah Jones. "Usually, the beginning of autumn is when there are fewer buyers. There are also more houses on the market, and the housing market usually calms down from the rush of the summer."
To arrive at our findings, Realtor.com looked at home prices, the number of homes for sale, the number of new listings that went on the market, days on the market, listings on Realtor.com, and price reductions in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Analysts have skipped 2020 due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lack of inventory created a nationwide housing crisis and raised prices to record highs. The median list price in August is $435,000 - a 14% increase over the same month last year, according to Realtor.com data.
However, the market frenzy began to fade a bit this spring as mortgage rates rose and the worst of the epidemic seemed to be over. Higher rates have served as a price cap, diluting the pool of buyers and limiting how high buyers are willing to go.
And now that school has started and parents aren't desperately scrambling for properties to settle their families before school starts, the market usually calms down even more because there's less competition.
"The market rebalances on top of these seasonal trends that we see every year because the interest on the mortgage increases. Increasingly, buyers are no longer able to keep up with price growth," says Jones.
"We expect prices to fall more than is typical from the peak," adds Jones. "It is likely that the price reductions will be higher than the typical year, and the demand will probably be lower than the typical year."
Despite the higher mortgage rates, the market is becoming more buyer friendly. The number of houses for sale increased in August by 87.3% compared to the beginning of the year, and in the coming weeks more properties are expected to go on the market.
In addition, days on market rose from an all-time low of 31 in May to a median of 42 in August.
The exact week that is most convenient for shoppers varies geographically. While the first full week of October is the most lucrative nationally, the week of September 11-17 is the best for those in the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Seattle among others. The following week, September 18-24 is recognized for those in Austin, Texas, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.
Last year, the best week to buy nationally was October 3-9.
The best time to sell a home is April 10-16, according to Realtor.com.
"If price is your priority, then wait a bit and you'll likely see lower prices heading into the fall," says Jones. "If you have a larger selection of homes to choose from, then buying a little earlier may be beneficial as inventory tends to be a little higher in the early fall and then tapers off toward the end of the year."