These days, it isn’t easy to find a deal. In most markets, there are more home buyers than there are available homes for sale. That puts upward pressure on prices, causes bidding wars, and means fewer bargains for buyers. So what can a budget-minded home shopper do? Well, new numbers from ATTOM Data Solutions offer a clue. Their analysis looked at every calendar day over the past eight years with at least 10,000 home sales and calculated the premium or discount buyers paid on that day. The results help zero in on the days and months when home buyers can expect to get the best deal on a house. For example, the analysis determined that buyers who closed in October paid the smallest premium of any month, at 2.9 percent. And while that’s still above market value, it isn’t the 11.5 percent May buyers pay or the 9 percent premium buyers pay in June. In other words, October is the best month for getting a good deal. The best individual days to buy, on the other hand, were mostly found in December. Overall, however, buyers who closed in October, November, December or January did better than those who waited until spring. (source)
