When people search for homes in today’s hottest markets
They say the early bird gets the worm, and the same is certainly true for the housing market. But in an industry where everything revolves around location, location, location, you might be surprised to find that the early bird house hunters near you are actually searching on their lunch break.
Most homebuyers rely on digital tools to find listings online and other information about prospective new homes. While you may have been able to gauge interest in a home by how many other buyers were at an open house, the rise in remote tools for real estate has moved this process behind closed doors.
Orchard is pulling back the curtain on the digital home search. We analyzed website traffic to our listings pages, as well as home tour requests made across the country, to find the most popular times and trends of house hunters in select markets across the country.
The rivalry between the East and West coast is well documented, and it turns out that the divide is true even of their home search preferences. Our data uncovered a strong regional correlation for house hunters’ preferred day of the week to browse listings.
From happy-hour hunters to sunrise surfers, we found that home searchers across the country have unique regional flair. Here’s a taste of the local flavor in the markets we analyzed.
Atlanta residents are the most likely to browse home listings as part of their Sunday to-do list.
If you live in Austin, you’re most likely scouring home listings during your lunch break.
Is it possible that home-shoppers in Charlotte are browsing during their morning Zoom meetings?
People in the Dallas-Fort Worth area tend to shop during prime happy hour time. A few beers, after all, could make that price tag go down smoother.
People in the D.C. and Northern Virginia area are most likely to dig into listings to fight off existential dread of the upcoming work-week by focusing their energy elsewhere.
People in the Denver-area take advantage of Summer Fridays to look at home listings online.
Similar to DFW, house hunters in Houston are also looking for homes on Thursday evenings.
People in Phoenix are most likely to look for homes online on Wednesday night, hoping to catch the next listing drop, which typically happens on Thursdays.
Prospective homebuyers in Portland are most likely to start off their morning with some home listings.
Prospective homebuyers living in the Raleigh-Durham area are likely to spend their Saturday night putting together a plan of attack for their upcoming open houses.
House hunters in the San Antonio market may be browsing to combat their workday slump.
People searching for homes in Seattle do so at the tail end of the workday.
While much of the home search process has been digitized, some prospective buyers still prefer a good old-fashioned open house. According to Orchard’s data, home shoppers are most likely to request a home tour for Saturdays. This request is commonly made 24 to 48 hours in advance of the requested showing.
Here are the rankings for the busiest day of the week for home showings based on Orchard data:
The weekend is a popular choice for house hunters to check out their potential new digs in person for somewhat obvious reasons: the time off work, opportunity to reflect, and the chance to speak with agents to learn how competitive offers have been on the home.
However, requesting a home tour mid-week, or even earlier since fewer people are searching then, could be to your advantage — you might even be able to make an offer before the weekend.
Worried about standing out in a seller’s market? You can make a non-contingent offer on your dream home and become a cash buyer when you work with Orchard.
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