The Best Week to Buy a House? It’s Coming Up

The best time to buy a house starts Sunday, Sept. 25.

According to data from Realtor.com®, Sept. 25 through Oct. 1 is the best time to buy a home this year across the U.S. As the number of listings slowly grow, the site predicts that there will be 46% more active listings compared to the same week in 2021. Buyers should see around 780,000 listings this week. Generally, this time period has about 9.5% more listings than average and 12.9% more than the beginning of the year. The best week of each year for buyers usually offers about 4.2% more inventory than the average week and about 25% from the peak. Yet, due to reduced buyer demand as mortgage rates continue to be around 6%, experts are predicting a much larger jump.

Additionally, the average home price is anticipated to be $430,000 or less, about $20,000 less than the summer’s peak, a record high. With more inventory, there are generally more price reductions on homes already listed on the market. The site predicts more than 6% of homes on the market will drop their price from Sept. 25 through Oct. 1. On average, about 5% of homes on the market drop their price in a given week.

Less competition is also expected this week. The peak homebuying season used to be in the summer, but this year, it started in the spring and continued into the summer and is now cooling down. Buyer demand is predicted to be 8.5% lower than the average week and nearly 27% lower than the peak.

However, in some Pennsylvania communities, the peak is anticipated to come a little earlier. In both the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas, buyers should take advantage from Sept. 18 through 24.