Forget television sets and video games, the best thing to buy during the holiday season may be a home.
A new analysis from Attom Data Solutions, a provider of real-estate data, found that December is the best month of the year to buy a home when it comes to getting a relatively good price. During the last month of the year, homes only sold for 1.2% more than their estimated market value on average. Comparatively, June, when homes sell for roughly a 7% premium, is the most expensive time to buy.
To produce the report, Attom analyzed more than 23 million single-family home and condo-unit sales over the past six years. Attom limited the analysis to days with at least 10,000 sales. Altogether, 362 days met that threshold — exceptions were Jan. 1, July 4, Nov. 11 and Dec. 25.
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There were only three days of the year where homes actually sold for a discount relative to estimated market values. All three of these days are in December: Dec. 4, Dec. 26 and Dec. 31.
“Closing on a home purchase the day after Christmas or on New Year’s Eve can be one of the most financially beneficial holiday-season gifts you can get,” Todd Teta, chief product officer with Attom Data Solutions, said in the report. “While lots of folks are shopping the day-after Christmas sales or getting ready to ring in the New Year, our data shows that buyers and investors are buying homes on those days at a discount.”
Of these, the day after Christmas was the best time to purchase — on that day, homes sold at a 0.3% discount.
At a local level, though, other months can be better than December. For instance, homes sell for over a 7% discount compared with the national average in January in Ohio, while the same is true of Michigan homes in February.
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