Top 10 Best Days of the Year to Buy a Home

Buyers willing to close the day after Christmas realize biggest discounts; Analysis also looks at best months to buy at the state and metro area levels

IRVINE, Calif. — Nov. 20, 2018 — ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's premier property database, today released an analysis of the best days of the year to buy a home, which shows that only 10 days of the year offer discounts below estimated market value — seven in December, and one each in October, November and February.

According to the analysis, buyers willing to close on a home purchase the day after Christmas realize the biggest discounts below full market of any day in the year. This analysis of more than 18 million single family home and condo sales over the past five years is evidence of the hot sellers' market of the past five years.

"People closing on a home purchase December 26 were submitting offers around Thanksgiving and starting their home search around Halloween — likely not a common path to home purchase for most buyers and exactly why it's the best time to buy," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions. "Buyers and investors willing to start their home search right about when stores are setting up Christmas decorations will face less competition and likely be dealing with more motivated sellers, giving them the upper hand in price negotiations."

Best Months to Buy

The analysis also looked at best months to buy at the national level (December) and at the state and metro level.

The states realizing the biggest discounts below full market value were Ohio (-8.8% in January); Michigan (-7.9% in February); Nebraska (-7.3% in December); Tennessee (-6.8% in December); and Delaware (-6.5% in December).

The metro areas realizing the biggest discounts below full market value were Dayton (-13.1% in January); Detroit (-12.8% in February); Cleveland (-12.0% in January); Honolulu (-10.3% in June); and Milwaukee (-9.3% in December).

Methodology

For this analysis ATTOM Data Solutions looked at any calendar day in the last five years (2013 to 2017) with at least 10,000 single family home and condo sales. There were 362 days that matched this criteria, with the four exceptions being Jan. 1, July 4, Nov. 11 and Dec. 25. 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 ATTOM Data Solutions

ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, APIs, market trends, marketing lists, match & append and more.