The Best Time of Year to Buy a Home

Ah spring time! When flowers are young, the air is fresh, and people are in a home buying frenzy. This frenzy is not limited to age, gender, or marital status - it grips all classes of people.  When tender tulips start showing up through melting snow in cold climates and the rain stops falling in the rainy areas, prospective buyers start hitting the streets looking for homes.

Typically during the spring, the real estate market booms throughout the country.

Reasons Home Buyers Choose Springtime

Barring some exceptions, most home buyers select spring to begin house hunting. Here are some probable reasons why:

• Winter is over and spirits are high.
• Families get together more often with long awaited holidays in March-April.
• The school year is closing soon. Buyers plan to begin moving soon after the school ends.
• There are more inventories available in the market since many sellers decide to go for spring listings.
• This is a part of pre-vacation planning. Buyers prefer to move during vacation time.

Which Day of the Year is the Worst to Buy a Home?

You can say it's the very last Friday in the month of May. Many people might think that Christmas is possibly the worst day, but that’s not true. There are very few interested buyers at that time and competition is low. People are in good spirits and feel more generous, and home sellers might extend this generosity when they accept your offer.

The time when home buyers start scouting for a home is not an issue. The time they eventually finalize the home they’re going to buy might create a problem. This often happens in April. After that, very often a closing date of the last Friday of May is decided during the signing of the purchase offer. All at once, there are a huge number of closings scheduled for that very day of May.

Why You Should Avoid the Worst Day

The reasons are plentiful, beginning with competition offered by other buyers and concluding with the actual moving in.

• From the available inventory, the best new listings are lapped up first at higher prices. Neighborhoods play an important role. Homes in good condition with appealing prices and desirable neighborhoods get many offers. Because of the competition, buyers often end up with a higher price than planned.
• There’s often a peak of pending sales in April which results in a large quantum of May closings. Regular workloads of real estate workers sometimes triple during this period and there are backlogs which might delay your closing.
• Otherwise exemplary services can be weakened by the Memorial Day holiday. Due to long weekends, workers take off for holidays and cannot process your transaction. High volumes also delay processing of loan documents.
• Higher interest rates might result from delayed closing if the locking period of your loan ends. There is a good probability of this if there is a rising demand of properties in your area and you might be stuck with higher mortgage payments.
• Since many people shift residences at May end, movers hike their rates. So your moving costs escalate. You might find it difficult to even find a mover in peak seasons. Many movers get booked well in advance for all weekends right through July.

Make sure you don’t sign the deal during the worst time to buy a home! It’s best to start your home hunting process early.