ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its annual analysis of the best time of the year to buy a home, which shows 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.

According to the analysis, buyers who close in October will get the best deal compared to the spring buying season. While the premium is still above market value, homebuyers are only dealing with a 3.3% premium, as opposed to the month of May, when homebuyers are experiencing an 10.5% premium. This analysis of more than 39 million single family home and condo sales over the past nine years is evidence of the continuation of a hot sellers' market.

The analysis also looked at the best days to buy at the national level and best months to buy at the state level.

"Apparently the old adage 'Spring forward and Fall back' applies not only to setting your clocks, but to home prices as well," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. "Seasonality has always had an impact on home prices, which tend to weaken in the Fall and Winter months when there's less buying activity. Savvy homebuyers can take advantage of those lower prices and less competition from other buyers once the leaves start to turn."

Best Days to Buy
Nationally, the best day to buy fall on November 28th with the lowest premium of 1.1% for homebuyers, followed by January 9th seeing a 1.3% premium. Then December days take the lead with December 5th a 1.5% premium, December 26th a 1.5% premium, December 19th a 1.9% premium, December 12th a 2.0% premium, and December 24th a 2.0% premium. A far cry from the month of May, where May 23rd, 20th and 27th offer over a 15% premium.

Best Months to Buy by State
According to the study, the states realizing the biggest discounts below full market value were New Jersey (-3.9% in February); Maryland (-3.5% in January); Michigan (-3.3% in October); Illinois (-2.7% in October); and Connecticut (-2.4% in December).

Methodology
For this analysis ATTOM looked at any calendar day in the last nine years (2013 to 2021) with at least 10,000 single family home and condo sales. There were 362 days (including leap year data) that matched these 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.