--- title: The Best Time of the Year to Buy a House Is Coming Soon description: The week of Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 is the best time to purchase a home because it offers an ideal combination of housing market conditions. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true published: '2022-09-14T17:28:33.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T13:12:42.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News word_count: 402 canonical: https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Illustration of a row of houses with a giant stopwatch looming over](https://img.money.com/2022/09/News-Best-Time-to-buy-house-coming-soon.jpg?crop=0px%2C250px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) Looking to buy a new house this fall? You’re in luck. A new [analysis](https://www.realtor.com/research/best-time-to-buy-2022/) from home listings website Realtor.com finds that the week of Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 is the best time to purchase. That’s thanks to an ideal combination of housing market conditions that give buyers the upper hand, including lower prices, more inventory, reduced competition and more time to make decisions. Realtor.com estimates that the last week in September could see nearly 50% more active listings compared to the average for the rest of 2022. The company also expects that people who buy that week will save more than $20,000 on a median-priced home compared to those who bought during the peak of the market this summer, when a median-priced home cost $450,000. In addition, potential buyers can look forward to demand that’s generally about 8.5% lower than an average week as well as homes that stay on the market about a week longer than is typical. More price cuts than usual are on deck, too. Realtor.com’s experts attribute these changes in the market to seasonal factors. Not only do kids return to school in the fall, but the weather also cools off, making showings and inspections harder to conduct. (Plus, the cold reduces curb appeal.) As a result, demand drops. ## Rising mortgage rates make it more expensive to buy Of course, it’s only a good time to buy a home if you can afford to do so. Many families are facing [affordability challenges](https://money.com/buy-a-home-mortgage-rates-volatile/) thanks to rising [mortgage rates](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/), and the issue is only likely to get worse if the Federal Reserve continues to push rates higher — something that many experts agree is likely next week as the central banking system keeps trying to bring down [inflation](https://money.com/inflation-food-rent-price-increase/). “The housing market always cools down this time of year, but this year, I expect fall and winter to be especially frigid as sales dry up more than usual,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at real estate brokerage Redfin, [said in a blog post last week](https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-surging-rates-slow-buying-and-selling/). If your budget has some wiggle room and you can stomach borrowing at higher rates, though, this could be an opportunity to jump into the market. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Best Time of the Year to Buy a House Is Coming Soon" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/", "name": "The Best Time of the Year to Buy a House Is Coming Soon", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-09-14T17:28:33.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-time-to-buy-house/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T13:12:42.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Best Time of the Year to Buy a House Is Coming Soon", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/09/News-Best-Time-to-buy-house-coming-soon.jpg?crop=0px%2C250px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Best-Time-to-buy-house-coming-soon" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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