As summer winds down, those in the U.S. home buying market may be approaching the best week to buy.
The first week of fall — in 2019 that's Sunday, Sept. 22 to Saturday, Sept. 28 — is the best time to buy a home in the U.S., according to a report by Realtor.com.
During this time "shoppers will find less competition, more price reductions and more inventory to choose from," writes Realtor.com economic data analyst Nicolas Bedo.
For the report, Realtor.com crunched 2016 to 2018 data for six supply-and-demand metrics at a national and metropolitan level: online page-views per property on Realtor.com, median listing price, percent of list prices reduced, median days on market, new-listing count and active listing count.
In 41 of the 53 markets Realtor.com analyzed, the first week week of fall is the best time to buy.
During the first week of fall an average of 6% of homes on the market across the U.S. go through price reductions, resulting list prices an average of 4% cheaper than their peak.
As for individual cities, Denver leads in average percentage of listings with reductions at 11%, Salt Lake City followed at 10.8%, then Seattle at 10.2% of listings, and Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon both at 9.9%.
"What stands out to me was how quickly prices and the market adjust to the slower traffic," George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com told CNBC Make It. "I would have expected probably October, November to see much more of price decline and foot traffic slowdown. It was interesting that the market response, the sellers, respond so much quicker after the height of summer."
During the first week of fall, buyers across the U.S. face an average of 6% less competition than an average week.
Seattle has the largest average competition drop (-41.3%) compared to the average week; Portland, Oregon follows (-35.5%); then Buffalo, New York (-34.6%); Milwaukee, Wisconsin (-32.8%); and Minneapolis, Minnesota (-32.6%).
"Based on past experience, buyers don't come out the day after Labor Day like many people or sellers think," Michael J. Franco of Compass told CNBC Make It. "There are many factors that influence or interrupt the flow of buyers in September, including hectic back-to-school commitments, the Jewish holidays, or extended summer vacation rentals."
With an average of 116,000 new listings added to national inventory in the first week of fall, the time period sees an average of 6.1% more listings overall than the average week, and an average of 76% more than the start of the year.
By region, the West sees the most favorable market factors during the first week of fall. There list prices go down an average of 4% compared to their peak and an average of nearly 9% of list prices are reduced. Also, buyers there face nearly 30% less competition on average during that time period compared to the average week, with an average of 22% more active listings available. Homes also stay on the market an average of nearly 38% longer than at their peak week, according to Realtor.com.
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